Published on the 04/11/2015 | Written by Beverley Head

Australian business should reconsider the way it attempts to reach consumers based on a finer grained understanding of their technology preferences…

Releasing the local cut of its Mobile Consumer Survey for 2015, Stuart Johnston, technology, media and telco leader of Deloitte, said that disruptive organisations such as Uber had based their entire business model on an appreciation of consumers’ comfort with smartphones.

And while not every organisation would be looking for a disruptive business model, understanding consumer technology preferences would allow companies to “find friction points and smooth those friction points,” said Johnston.

The survey, which is the result of quizzing more than 2,000 Australians between the ages of 18 and 75, found that 79 percent of the population now owned at least one smartphone. Almost a third planned to buy a new one in the coming 12 months.

According to Deloitte partner Jeremy Drumm the smartphone has “become the personal remote for life and for the most part we are in control.”

Well sort of. Most Australians admit to a slavish need to access the device within 15 minutes of waking, and 81 percent could not resist the device for longer than an hour. On average we look at the phone 30 times a day – a figure which masks the fact that there is a significant proportion of people (particularly younger consumers) who admit to taking a peek at the device more than 200 times a day.

Apple and Samsung dominate the Australian smartphone landscape with a combined share of 73 percent.

Drumm acknowledged that Apple has “almost a cult-like following in brand loyalty,” with 61 percent of iPhone users saying that their previous device was also Apple branded.

While the smartphone reigns there has also been a significant uptick in the penetration of tablets – up from 44 to 59 percent, while laptop penetration has risen from 71 to 77 percent.

One particularly interesting reverse trend however was a sharp decline in consumer interest in digital wallets compared to previous years. Whether the announcement this week that Apple and American Express would work together to deliver Apple Pay in Australia can reverse that trend next year remains to be seen, but for the present fewer than a quarter of respondents said they were interested in using the smartphone as a digital wallet, compared to 40 percent last year.

Johnston said he believed that there may be some education issues for companies pushing digital wallets, not least to sell the more secure nature of a smartphone compared to a credit card.

“As retailers figure out how to use location data and start to realise incentives” to use the devices then this may change he said.