Online spending growth shows mobile phones are the new mall
Š Getty screen-shot-2019-12-02-at-11-33-15-am.png Consumers are increasingly partial to deals that appear under their very thumbs. Since November 1, 58% of all traffic to retail websites has come from smartphones, up from 51% a year ago, according to Adobe Analytics. Shoppers aren't just browsing on their phones — they're clicking "buy" in record numbers. Some 36% of all online sales this year have come from smartphones, the research firm found, a jump from 31% in 2018. For retailers, such data points underscore a trend within a trend: the emerging importance of mobile commerce amid the ongoing tidal shift toward ecommerce. Consumers "are clearly more comfortable buying products large and small through their phones," said John Copeland, vice president of marketing and customer insights ad Adobe Analytics, which tracks online spending. As a result, merchants "are really taking a cue in terms of making the customer journey on the phone easier," he added. A key factor easing the trip: the growing popularity of mobile payment systems such as Apple Pay. "People are getting more comfortable using Apple Pay or a mobile wallet, and that's really the confluence of people's increased comfort with payment devices, but also retailers optimizing journeys on mobile devices," Copeland said. "It's a lot easier to shop on your mobile phone in a format that has been formatted specifically for your phone, not a desktop image being crammed onto your phone screen."
Click to expand UP NEXT To be sure, Americans aren't ditching retail stores altogether. Analysts who surveyed stores and malls on Black Friday said foot traffic was healthy, with many shoppers seemingly happy to participate in what has become an annual holiday tradition. "The stores obviously still matter," Moody's analyst Charlie O'Shea said. "Brick-and-mortar retailers are still finding ways to get people to come to stores." Some consumers still prefer to purchase pricier items in-store. "They want it now, and for higher-end stuff they really want to see it first, and then get it home right away," he said.
Mobile shopping could reach a key threshold on Christmas Day, when Adobe expects smartphone-based purchases to surpass desktop spending for the first time. Adobe forecasts $1.1 billion dollars in online sales on December 25, with 47% of those purchases on Christmas Day made via a smartphone, compared to 46% on desktops and 7% on tablets. "This will be a significant inflection point that we've been looking forward to for sometime. We are finally crossing over," said Jason Woosley, vice president of commerce at Adobe.
02 T-Mobile shows why it's still too early to buy a 5G phone John Legere Mark Neuling | CNBC T-Mobile's nationwide 5G network launches on Friday, the company announced Monday morning. But don't fall for the marketing hype. It's still too early to buy a 5G phone, even though T-Mobile is now taking orders for two new ones, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ and OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren. It's still a big step, though. T-Mobile will turn on its 600 Mhz 5G network, which will cover most of the country. That's impressive, since most of the 5G networks you've heard about so far are only available in limited areas in a small number of cities. The trade-off though, is T-Mobile's network is using low-band 5G, which means it's good at providing slightly boosted speeds inside buildings and is available in far more places than what competitors offer. Some of the 5G Ultra Wideband networks you've heard about from AT&T and Verizon provide the opposite. They have super fast speeds, but only work in really small pockets when you're standing near a tower outside. PCMag says you can expect a boost of about 50 Mbps with T-Mobile's new nationwide 5G network. So, you might see 150Mbps if you have a new 5G phone instead of the 100 Mbps download speed you have on 4G LTE. To put that in perspective, if you're downloading a 3 GB movie, you might be able to download it in about 30 seconds or so if you have a really good 4G LTE connection. If you get that 50 Mbps boost, you'd download the same movie in 20 seconds. The bump in speed isn't a good enough reason to buy a new 5G phone right now. Verizon and AT&T's 5G networks are roughly 10 times faster than LTE, with speeds hitting around 1,000 Mbps (or 1 Gbps) or more. That means you can download a 3 GB movie in just a few seconds. T-Mobile has some of these networks active, but only in six cities. And the two new phones you can buy today don't support those areas. Only one phone does, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ 5G, but that doesn't support the new 600MHz network. Plus there are overheating issues you need to worry about with some of those faster networks. Here's why you should wait before buying a 5G phone today: Eventually, carriers are going to sell phones that support all the various 5G technologies that are starting to light up across the country. That means you'll have one device that can access the top-tier speeds offered by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, or the slower, but still fast enough, speeds that T-Mobile announced Monday. You can see why T-Mobile wants to merge with Sprint. If the merger goes through, the combined carrier will have all three major 5G technologies available. Unfortunately, there aren't any phones that support all of those networks yet, so anything you buy now would be out of date as soon as there are. It's best to wait until later in 2020 to start looking at 5G phones.
03 China rolling out facial recognition for all new mobile phone numbers
screen shows visitors being filmed by AI security cameras with facial recognition technology at the 14th China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing on October 24, 2018. Facial recognition checks are about to become even more ubiquitous in China, as rules come into force requiring anyone registering a new mobile phone number to submit to facial scans. While the government says the implementation of biometric data "effectively [protects] citizens' legitimate rights and interests in cyberspace" and helps fight fraud, the move brings with it considerable privacy and security concerns in one of the most tightly controlled online environments in the world. The country already enforces "real-name registration" policies which require people to link online accounts with their official government ID. But the latest move, which was formally adopted Sunday, further removes any sense of anonymity in using the Chinese internet. More than 850 million people across China — about 65% of the population — use their mobile devices to access the internet, according to the government, far more than those who use desktop services. Apps like Tencent's WeChat have largely become the internet for many Chinese people, offering everything from messaging and social networking to taxi services, food delivery and tax payment. The new rules only apply to mobile phone numbers registered from December 1, and not to those already registered. Facial recognition, meanwhile, is everywhere in China, from airports and office buildings to trash sorting facilities. Last week, Beijing's subway system even began trialing new facial recognition gates at security checkpoints. Privacy concerns While anyone registering a new phone number in China was already required to provide ID and photos, the addition of full facial scans introduces more concerns about government surveillance and the ability of the country's state-run mobile providers to protect sensitive information about their customers. Writing in September, four Chinese researchers specializing in AI and biometrics wrote that potential breaches involving this type of information could have "severe and lasting" ramifications for the people affected. "Facial recognition-powered surveillance systems, if improperly deployed or secured, will not only fail to effectively safeguard public safety, but also may infringe on people' freedom/privacy and provide a source for abuse," they added. The US-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that recommends opting out of the tech whenever possible, notes that it's "easy for companies and agencies to tout the convenience of this sort of massive data collection and sharing scheme." "But as we've seen in notable privacy fiascos over the last few years ... it's the customers and passengers who will bear the burden when things go wrong, and they will go wrong." Government control China's latest policy also raises alarms because of how it could potentially be used by the country's vast surveillance state. According to recent analysis from consumer site Comparitech, cities in China are among the most monitored in the world, with more than 100 CCTV cameras per thousand people in both Shanghai and Shenzhen. In the country's far-western region of Xinjiang, where authorities have increasingly tightened security in the name of cracking down on Islamic extremism, ubiquitous surveillance cameras form part of a hypersecuritized system that tracks and monitors citizens — particularly those of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority. In parts of some cities in Xinjiang, there are facial surveillance cameras about every 150 feet (45 meters) that feed images back to central command centers, where people's faces and routines are monitored and cross-referenced. Elsewhere in China, the advance of facial recognition has not been entirely smooth. Last month, Guo Bing, an associate professor of law at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, sued a safari park in Hangzhou after it required all season ticket holders to scan their faces if they wanted to visit in future. "The purpose of the lawsuit is not to get compensation but to fight the abuse of facial recognition," Guo told local media. The park later said that it would allow people to opt out of facial scans.
And in August, anti-government protesters in Hong Kong tore down several "smart" lampposts over fears they could be used to implement facial recognition and other advanced surveillance in the semi-autonomous city. Many countries are struggling with how to regulate the new technology, and China is no different. In September, officials said they wanted to curb its use by schools after Chinese media reported that a university in Nanjing was trialing the tech to monitor student attendance and engagement in class. Last month, China established a national-level working group of 28 technology companies to set standards for the facial recognition, state media reported. Some of the companies involved have been linked to the surveillance of Muslims in Xinjiang, a fact noted by privacy campaigners.
T-Mobile shows why it's still too early to buy a 5G phone John Legere Mark Neuling | CNBC T-Mobile's nationwide 5G network launches on Friday, the company announced Monday morning. But don't fall for the marketing hype. It's still too early to buy a 5G phone, even though T-Mobile is now taking orders for two new ones, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ and OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren. It's still a big step, though. T-Mobile will turn on its 600 Mhz 5G network, which will cover most of the country. That's impressive, since most of the 5G networks you've heard about so far are only available in limited areas in a small number of cities. The trade-off though, is T-Mobile's network is using low-band 5G, which means it's good at providing slightly boosted speeds inside buildings and is available in far more places than what competitors offer. Some of the 5G Ultra Wideband networks you've heard about from AT&T and Verizon provide the opposite. They have super fast speeds, but only work in really small pockets when you're standing near a tower outside. PCMag says you can expect a boost of about 50 Mbps with T-Mobile's new nationwide 5G network. So, you might see 150Mbps if you have a new 5G phone instead of the 100 Mbps download speed you have on 4G LTE. To put that in perspective, if you're downloading a 3 GB movie, you might be able to download it in about 30 seconds or so if you have a really good 4G LTE connection. If you get that 50 Mbps boost, you'd download the same movie in 20 seconds. The bump in speed isn't a good enough reason to buy a new 5G phone right now. Verizon and AT&T's 5G networks are roughly 10 times faster than LTE, with speeds hitting around 1,000 Mbps (or 1 Gbps) or more. That means you can download a 3 GB movie in just a few seconds. T-Mobile has some of these networks active, but only in six cities. And the two new phones you can buy today don't support those areas. Only one phone does, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ 5G, but that doesn't support the new 600MHz network. Plus there are overheating issues you need to worry about with some of those faster networks. Here's why you should wait before buying a 5G phone today: Eventually, carriers are going to sell phones that support all the various 5G technologies that are starting to light up across the country. That means you'll have one device that can access the top-tier speeds offered by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, or the slower, but still fast enough, speeds that T-Mobile announced Monday. You can see why T-Mobile wants to merge with Sprint. If the merger goes through, the combined carrier will have all three major 5G technologies available. Unfortunately, there aren't any phones that support all of those networks yet, so anything you buy now would be out of date as soon as there are. It's best to wait until later in 2020 to start looking at 5G phones.