Oracle has published the results of a wide-ranging survey into consumer perceptions of mobile, and found a growth in engagement with location-based services, alongside continued worries about mobile security. 

Engagement with location-based services appears to have grown in the last year, according to the Opportunity Calling: The Future of Mobile Communications study. 

Gordon Rawling, senior marketing director at Oracle Communications says: “Last year we asked if [respondents] would be interested in receiving content based on their location, and got 33 per cent saying yes. This year we got 45 per cent saying they have already elected to share their location. I think thats a really good indicator in terms of a willingness to engage with these types of services.”

In terms of mCommerce, Rawlings says that the perception of security among consumers is and will continue to hold back growth. 

According to the report, 32 per cent of respondents believe information stored or sent via their phones is secure. 34 per cent said they prefer to do mobile banking from a tablet rather than their mobile phone. 

“In this survey, 68 per cent of people said they dont think the information stored on their phone is secure, or they dont know if its secure,” says Rawling. “People are saying they arent confident in the transaction. And if these are going to be commercial transactions, which is ideally what all advertising is about, thats something that needs to be addressed.”

Rawlings says operators need to underpin the safety and security of mobile transactions “both from an actuality perspective, and in terms of educating its customers”. 

The Opportunity Calling: The Future of Mobile Communications study also reports that 47 per cent of customers say their data usage has risen in the last year, and 74 per cent of customer would switch operators for a better price.