Smartphones to become ever more central

Deloitte has been presenting its TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunications) Predictions since 2001. Every year, the consulting firm, which aggregates facts and figures about multiple high technology markets, gets into presenting its forecasts for the years to come to a wide audience.

Maybe one of the most striking topics this year, in Duncan Stewart speech, is that while the smartphones were launched just 10 years ago, their penetration now reaches 85% of adult population in developed countries and is anticipated to reach 90% by 2023. Deloitte is even anticipating an increase in smartphone ASPs (average selling price) from US$ 302 (EUR 242) in 2015 to US$ 350 (EUR 281) in 2023, as they consider consumers will be asking for more high-end devices. This will get to the point where 10% of the smartphones sold in 2023 will carry a price tag over US$ 1,000 (EUR 803). The main driver of higher adoption of smartphones in each market will be take-up among older age groups.

Deloitte anticipates that 2023 smartphones will look more or less like the ones we are using today, but most of the evolution will be under-the-hood, with improvements in connectivity, processors, sensors, software, artificial intelligence and memory … Deloitte anticipates a fast development and numerous applications based on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Maybe, one of the most important aspects of these TMT predictions for our industry is that users will interact with their phones
on average 65 times per day in 2023, a 20% increase over 2018, a large part of this increase being due to the addition of new features such as enterprise applications and in-store payment options. Deloitte also anticipates that by 2023, smartphones will be used as keys, office entry cards, and credit, debit and other stored-value cards (including for transport). These apps will require increasing use of smartphones for authenticating access to physical and digital environments. Biometrics are to play a growing role in authentication, with the addition of improved fingerprint readers, infrared or 3-D facial scanners.

The development of smartphone applications and adoption anticipated by Deloitte will undoubtedly bring changes and be a driver for the secure transactions industry growth.