Ericsson on Monday said that mobile subscribers in Nigeria and overseas were set for a new wave of technologies that would shape the way they lead their lives.
According to Ericsson, findings from a new study show that consumers want technology and connectivity to be integrated into all facets of their daily lives – in everything from bathroom mirrors, to sidewalks and medicine jars.
It, therefore, said that the 10 hot consumer trends for 2015 study conducted by Ericsson ConsumerLab showed that mobile users were becoming aware of the role of interconnected technologies, big data, mobile and social networks.
The trends, the company said, included streamed future, home sensors, mind sharing, smart citizens, sharing economy, digital purse, encrypted information, cloud-based services, and domestic robots connected objects.
The Head of Research, Ericsson ConsumerLab, Michael Bjorn, said, “The cumulative effect of smartphones becoming part of mainstream society is astonishing. As consumers, we try out new apps and keep the ones we think improve, enrich or even prolong our lives at such a rapid pace that we don’t even notice that our attitudes and behaviours are changing faster than ever.
“Services and products that quite recently seemed beyond imagination are now easily accepted and believed to rapidly reach the mass market. With only five years until 2020, the future really does seem closer than ever before.”
Bjorn said that this year’s study concentrated on smartphone owners aged 15 to 69 in Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, New York, Moscow, San Francisco, SâoPaulo, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo, statistically representing 85 million frequent Internet users.
The Senior Advisor, Consumer Insights, Ericsson ConsumerLab, Rebecka Angstrom, said in a video conferencing in Lagos that the 10 hot consumer trends for 2015 included streamed future, which sees viewers are shifting towards easy-to-use on-demand services that allow cross-platform access to video content.
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Angstrom noted that 2015 would be historic, as more people would watch streamed video on a weekly basis than broadcast television.
She said consumers would show high interest in having home sensors that alert them to water and electricity issues. “Many smartphone owners would like to use a wearable device to communicate with others directly through thought, and I believe this will be the mainstream by 2020,” she added.
The study, she said, “showed that as the Internet makes us more informed, we are in turn making better decisions with consumers believing traffic volume maps, energy use comparison apps and real-time water quality checkers will be mainstream by 2020.”
Angstrom said, “Half of all smartphone owners are open to the idea of renting out their spare rooms, personal household appliances and leisure equipment as it is convenient and can save money.
“Forty-eight per cent of smartphone owners would rather use their phone to pay for goods and services with 80 per cent believing that it will replace their entire purse by 2020. Forty-eight per cent of smartphone owners would like to be able to pay electronically without an automatic transfer of personal information while 56 per cent of them would like all Internet communication to be encrypted.”
The Ericsson senior advisor also said that smartphone owners saw cloud-based services of various kinds giving them the potential to live healthier and longer lives.
“Jogging apps, pulse metres and plates that measure our food are believed to help prolong our lives by up to two years per application. Consumers are welcoming the idea of having domestic robots that could help with everyday chores, with 64 per cent believing this will be common in households by 2020,” she added.
She added that children would continue to drive the demand for a more tangible Internet, “where the physical world is as connected as the screens of their devices.”
Already 46 per cent of smartphone owners said that children would expect all objects to be connected when they are older. (Punch)