Deloitte’s annual Mobile Consumer Survey – Australian Cut is coming up to its 5th Edition with the 2018 report to be released in late November. The survey of >2,000 Australians explores trends in mobility – devices, mobility, usage, payments, content, privacy etc. and is part of a global survey which is now performed in 6 continents, 35 countries with 54,150 respondents – the largest of its kind.

2017 Recap

The 2017 report covered a number of key insights about the mobility ecosystem in Australia:

• 88% of Australians own a smartphone and Australians have the second highest % penetration of Apple and Samsung smartphones in the countries surveyed at 75% – only Luxemburg at 83% is higher.
• Australians are purchasing more data in 2017 than ever before – 60% of Australians now have a data limit 3GB or higher.
• Australians are more likely to connect to WiFi in 2017 than 4G despite 86% of people being on 4G. This is believed to be the result of the current cost of mobile data plans rather than connectivity needs (e.g. speed)
• 1 in 5 consumers visited an operator store in the last month and 3 in 5 in the last year. Stores are still important for operators especially for testing physical product and technical support.
• Ownership and access to connected devices in the home is on the rise. In the last year there have been increased purchases of cameras (9%), connected car systems (8%) and connected home appliances (5%).
• Mobile payment solutions were up 14% from 2016 with over 25% of respondents suggesting they now use the mobile payment solutions.

What to expect in 2018?

I’m really excited by the 2018 report – the behaviours related to mobility are continuing to evolve. We are now firmly in the era of smart entertainment, long form content outside of the home, smartwatches, biometrics (fingers and faces) and voice. We are also on the cusp a boom in usage with the first unlimited mobile data plans launched in Australia in 2018 and 5G internet just around the corner.

This year’s report will look at the behaviours we are starting to witness:

• We are already at very high smartphone penetration but have we hit peak smartphone usage yet? What might that look like?
• What are people thinking about when they purchase a device? Is it more than just price?
• What are users happy to give up (in terms of data privacy) in order to maximise the functionality they get from their mobile devices?
• What is the extent of the influence of the global digital giants on or mobile habits and behaviours?

Stay tuned for the launch of the 2018 report and please reach out if you are interested in exploring any of the data behind the report with us.