Lukewarm welcome for location-based apps
While the uptake of web-connected mobile phones and tablets has been swift in Australia, the majority of their owners have yet to take the next step and embrace the use of location-sensing apps.
Principals’ latest Digital Pulse study, published this week, reveals there is considerable discomfort, across the ages and genders, about these location-aware apps and the personal information they might disclose to others.
It will come as no great surprise Australia’s most popular location-aware mobile app is Google Maps. It offers pretty remarkable user utility and comes pre-loaded on most mobile internet devices today. It’s a dream line extension, riding on the back of the Google brand’s familiarity and influence. Yet even the mighty Google has so far convinced just one in five mobile internet users to regularly use the app here.
It’s the same story over at Facebook, where just one in every dozen mobile internet users in Australia have so far checked in with their social network via Facebook Places. You’d hardly describe it as a social phenomenon that’s spreading like wildfire. Niche communities are slowly building around information-rich apps that filter results based on the users’ current location such as Trip Advisor, AroundMe and UrbanSpoon. These apps generally appeal to older smartphone users, although regular user numbers are still tiny.
The on-the-spot deal sites such as Star Deals/Groupon and Foursquare, so often plugged as the next big thing, are struggling with less than 2 per cent trial rates across the Australian mobile internet user base. They have an embryonic young following, yet are miles short of the critical mass that would trigger mainstream brand or retailer involvement.
You might argue these low penetration levels are symptomatic of the online apps markets, where thousands of low-cost and often me-too apps are competing for buyer’s attentions – and word of mouth is the only real growth driver.
Yet, put all of the location-sensing apps together, including the Google and Facebook offers, and they are reaching just a third of their available users. What is holding the sector back? Apple’s admission earlier this year that its iPhones systematically collect and store location-specific data on their users surely startled many.
It was a wake-up call to smart device users that living in an information rich world cuts both ways. These devices give their users access to a lot of exciting content but they can also yield a lot of user information in return to the platform and content providers. When this is a less than transparent value exchange, trust is destroyed.
Simple human nature is a major influence here. We are all easily spooked by the idea that others might be able to know our precise whereabouts at any point in time.
Two-thirds of users feel uncomfortable that their mobile devices have the ability to track and store their movements. Seventy per cent of users feel uncomfortable that companies may have the ability to target them based on their current location. And 80 per cent of users feel uncomfortable that people they don’t know might be able to identify their current location.
It is this fear of being stalked by unseen strangers, both individuals and companies that seems to lie at the heart of consumers’ wariness about location-based services. This may be a fear that the market grows out of, as the concept normalises and the content providers allow users to take greater control of their privacy settings. But for most people today, the fear of being watched is far greater than the value they see in return.
By Wayde Bull is planning director of the brand consultancy Principals.
First published on AFR (www.afr.com) - 11th August 2011
