American consumers are becoming "increasingly obsessed" with their mobile devices, Deloitte said Wednesday in a survey report on mobile consumer trends. Deloitte canvassed 2,000 U.S. consumers in July and found nearly 90 percent said they check their phones in the first hour after waking up in the morning, while one in four admits to looking at the device up to 50 times a day, the firm said. Moreover, despite the newness of Internet of Things technology, 55 percent of those surveyed "are already interested in a ‘connected home’ solution -- with consumers also showing interest in ‘connected car’" IoT, it said. "While it's common knowledge that consumers are addicted to their mobile devices, it turns out that consumers are truly more inseparable from their devices than previously thought," Deloitte said. With the vast majority of Americans checking their phones within a half hour of waking up, "consumer obsession with devices is phenomenally high and the sheer amount of times per day that consumers access their devices for various activities be it email, text messages or social networks is staggering," said Craig Wigginton, vice chairman and U.S telecommunications sector leader, Deloitte & Touche. "We're also seeing interesting long-term trends around IoT, consumers' use of devices for work and play, from the potential of mPayments -- currently underutilized but promising -- to this year's significant jump in music and video streaming."

Nearly six of 10 consumers who use a smartphone or tablet while shopping prefer to look up information on their devices rather than talk to store employees, CEA said Wednesday a survey found. That preference is highest among male shoppers and those between ages 25 and 44, it said. Sixty-two percent of mobile shoppers indicate they perceive the information they gather via their mobile device as more beneficial than the information available in-store via product displays or sales literature, it said. "Mobile devices have significantly shifted consumers’ shopping behavior," CEA said. "Retailers are increasingly focusing on delivering a complete consumer shopping experience and mobile devices are now a vital piece of that puzzle." Mobile shoppers more often use their mobile devices for assistance when shopping for electronics (60 percent) than for any other product type, CEA said. Following electronics, mobile shoppers most frequently use their devices while shopping in physical retail stores for groceries (55 percent), apparel (47 percent), shoes (45 percent), and health and beauty products (39 percent), it said. While shopping specifically for electronics, mobile shoppers use their devices to compare prices (63 percent), read customer ratings or reviews (52 percent) and search the Internet for more information (51 percent), it said.

E-readers and e-books continue to be popular with children, and they figure to be "among the hot technology gifts for kids" this holiday selling season. So said the findings of a survey from Digital Book World, an online educational and news platform, and PlayCollective, a research and consulting firm. PlayCollective canvassed families in October and found more than 45 percent of all parents with children between the ages of 2 and 13 plan to buy a new device for their child to read e-books this holiday season, the firms said. Of those parents who already own a device, half are planning to buy a new one this season, up by 4 percentage points from last year, and nearly six of 10 "intend for the device to belong primarily to their child," they said. Although tablets have "reigned for the past two years," the Kindle e-reader is the device parents most intend to buy this year, "perhaps because the growing variety of tablets has splintered the competition," they said. Three-quarters of the parents surveyed plan to buy new e-books for their children this holiday season, up 2 percentage points from last year, they said. Parents plan to spend an average of $26.14 for new e-books, up by $1.03 from last year’s average, they said. "Although parents are spending more on ebooks, they are not necessarily buying more books. Parents' spending habits and holiday budget allow for three books this year, which is the same number as last holiday season."

TVs are "especially prominent" on holiday CE wish lists, with 34 percent of consumers planning to buy at least one set during the holidays, an IHS report released Friday said. Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of survey respondents planned to buy a TV in the 50-59-inch range, and 22 percent were eyeing 40-45-inch TVs, IHS said. In a brand breakout, 66 percent of consumers plan to buy an LG, Samsung, Sony or Vizio TV, but IHS expects heavy price discounts and other promotions to “change this scenario in favor of low-tier brands,” said Veronica Gonzalez-Thayer, IHS senior analyst-consumer electronics. TV features that consumers are willing to pay more for include “smart” (34 percent) and 4K UHD (29 percent), the report said. That’s good news for TV makers that “are trying to leverage on these to increase profits and augment demand,” Gonzalez-Thayer said. Overall, U.S. consumers plan to spend an average $768.55 on consumer electronics this holiday season, IHS said, with some 37 percent of respondents planning to make at least one CE purchase on Black Friday, 32 percent planning to buy online on Cyber Monday and 50 percent expecting to buy electronics some other time in November or December, it said. “This year consumer confidence is very high,” Gonzalez-Thayer said, explaining that two-thirds of respondents plan to shop both online and in stores. Breaking out retailers, 76 percent of respondents planned to shop at Amazon, followed by Walmart (73 percent), Best Buy (66 percent) and Target (63 percent) the report, said.

Compared with last year, IBM’s annual holiday sales forecast report (see 1411050036) predicts significantly higher mobile browsing activity as a share of total online traffic. IBM believes that’s because of "a combination of an increased number of people using tablet devices, companies offering ubiquitous and affordable smartphones (a move away from feature phones) and consumer comfort and familiarity with mobile shopping," spokeswoman Amanda Carl emailed us Thursday. As for IBM projections that iOS devices will dominate Android smartphones and tablets in mobile browsing and shopping, we asked if IBM has any read on the possible impact of Apple Pay on holiday sales in this, its first holiday selling season. "Retailers are looking to bring the latest in online shopping to the store," Carl replied. "This includes in-store targeting via mobile applications, personalization in terms of mobile coupons, and mobile push notifications. This in-store digital push is now including mobile payments, especially with the recent launch of Apple Pay, which may in fact be the catalyst for broad adoption of mobile payments, both through Apple and other devices."

IBM projects that online holiday sales will increase 15 percent over the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, compared with last year, the company said Wednesday in its annual holiday forecast report. The biggest increase in online sales is expected on Cyber Monday, when sales will grow 15.8 percent, followed closely by Thanksgiving with a projected increase of 15.6 percent, it said. It sees Black Friday online sales growing 13 percent "as consumers find the best deals with their fingers as well as their feet," it said. IBM based its predictions "on historical and real-time trend data analyzed across hundreds of U.S. retail websites," it said. Now in its seventh year of holiday reporting, IBM tracks more than 370 performance indicators, and "helps retailers and marketers benchmark themselves against industry peers while driving more targeted customer engagements," it said. Other IBM projections: (1) For the first time ever, more than half of all online shopping on Thanksgiving, roughly 53 percent, will come from a mobile device, up by 23 percentage points year-over-year. (2) Smartphones will continue to lead in mobile browsing over the five-day shopping period, accounting for 29 percent of all online traffic vs. 15 percent for tablets. However, IBM predicts tablets will account for twice as many mobile purchases as smartphones due to their larger screen size.

Younger U.S. consumers have shown more confidence in the security of mobile payments than the baby boom generation, a GfK report said. The generation known as millennials (defined in the report as generations Y and Z, ages 18-34) is twice as likely as older adults to view such payments as faster, easier or more efficient than other types of transactions, GfK said Thursday. At 67 percent, members of Generation Y (ages 24-34) reported being worried about the security of personal information when making mobile payments, the report said. Personal information, technology quality and other factors are likely holding mobile payment from full potential, it said. About 80 percent of mobile payers use their smartphones to make payments, 58 percent use tablets and 38 percent use both methods, it said.

Despite the continued surge in photo sharing through social media sites, nearly six in 10 consumers who were canvassed in four countries said they had bought printed photo products in the past 12 months, Futuresource Consulting said Wednesday in a research report. The firm canvassed 4,000 consumers in France, Germany, the U.K. and U.S. to ask how they share digital images and use specific websites and smartphone and tablet apps, it said. It found that 57 percent of those surveyed in the four markets had bought a "personalized photo product," such as photo prints, photo books, calendars, posters or cards, in the past year, it said. Photo prints were the most popular item, having been purchased by 42 percent of the sample, with photo books in second place at 23 percent, it said. However, "when it comes to sharing photos electronically, consumers have now turned to the smartphone as the primary device to share photos with friend and family, taking over from last year's number one device, the laptop screen," it said. "In terms of online photo sharing, email remains a popular platform to share photos and this could be due to the perceived higher level of security/privacy. If this is the case, we can expect this to remain true for the future." When asked which websites or apps consumers use to share photos, Facebook was the most popular choice in all four countries, but Snapchat was the fastest-growing, it said. The firm said smartphones have become the devices most often used to take photos, because smartphone cameras "are constantly improving in terms of lens and resolution, as are the weight and battery life of smartphones themselves, making them far more suitable as substitutes for fixed-lens cameras." That’s in contrast to last year's findings, in which use of fixed-lens cameras for taking pictures was "marginally higher" than smartphones, it said.

Consumer expectations for holiday tech spending slipped in October by 3.2 points, said CEA’s latest Index of Consumer Technology Expectations, released Tuesday, while their sentiment toward the overall economy improved. The findings suggest “some tech buying was pulled into September with recent product releases,” said Shawn DuBravac, CEA senior director-research, who called the decline “surprising” given a solid economic outlook. Consumers could be taking a “wait-and-see approach, building up for November and the holiday shopping surge,” he suggested. The CEA Index of Consumer Expectations (ICE), which measures consumer expectations about the broader economy, grew by 5.3 points from last month, said the association. DuBravac said the overall sentiment toward the economy showed “surprising resiliency” in the face of continued geopolitical concerns and volatility in the U.S. financial market. “Signs that consumers are shrugging off uncertainty supports a positive holiday outlook overall,” he said. CEA’s 2014 holiday outlook calls for tech spending to improve 2.5 percent -- up from 0.9 percent growth in 2013 -- to reach $33.76 billion, which would be the highest levels of consumer spending on tech since CEA began tracking holiday spending in 1994, it said.

The average U.S. broadband home watches more than 17 hours of nonlinear video per week, compared with 11.5 hours of linear video, according to research from Parks Associates (http://bit.ly/1DEx7fE). Nonlinear video accounts for 49 percent of the video consumed on the TV and is 60 percent of TV video viewed by consumers aged 18-24, said Barbara Kraus, research director. Nearly 40 percent of U.S. broadband households that use a smart TV as their primary connected device spend at least one hour per week using Facebook on the connected TV, she said. The number of hours reflects personal viewing by the head-of-household rather than aggregate viewing for the entire household, a spokeswoman told us.