Independent study highlights the significance of retail channel to carriers and pressing need for cloud-based backup and transfer solutions

BRIDGEWATER, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 2016-- Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNCR) has today revealed that, across America, consumers lost 4.5 million hours waiting for their content to be transferred between their old and new smartphones in-store this holiday season. With 59% of Americans opting to buy new smartphones in physical stores, this trend has worrying implications for carriers and retailers looking to optimise the in-store customer experience. Customers are facing longer wait times while their existing content – which amounts to 10.8GB on average - is transferred over an in-store Wi-Fi connection from their old to their new device.

These findings are based on an independent survey conducted by 451 Research, and Synchronoss’ own proprietary data. 33.3 million devices were sold over the holiday season throughout the US, 19.6 million of them in-store. 23% of Americans ask in-store sales reps to transfer their personal content for them. Given it takes approximately 60 minutes to transfer 10.8GB of data* via Wi-Fi in-store, 4.5 million hours will have been lost by consumers waiting for their new smartphones and sales reps performing this mundane task.

This is not a problem that is going away – it’s going to get worse. Three factors are combining to make this a serious long term challenge for carriers and retailers:

• 59% of all new US smartphone sales (including upgrades) currently take place in-store. This trend will be sustained for at least the next five years up to 2019 (451 Research)
• The amount of content that consumers are creating and storing is growing dramatically – between songs, photos, videos and apps US consumers are collectively adding hundreds of megabytes of content per month (451 Research)
• Device financing, leasing and accelerated upgrade programs, plus the demise of operator-led subsidies, will lead to more customers arriving in-store more frequently for device upgrades

”The only thing mobile users value more than their smartphones is the content they create, consume and store on them – personal photos, music and video files, contact data and more,” said Rich Karpinski, Principal Analyst at 451 Research. “Losing that content due to theft, loss or device failure can be catastrophic; leaving it behind because you can’t figure out how to transfer it to a new or upgraded device may be even more frustrating. As device capabilities continue to improve and upgrade cycles accelerate, the ability for mobile operators to help their customers store and transfer all of that personal content becomes a critical opportunity to increase customer loyalty and stickiness – and potentially generate incremental services revenue.”

“After all the buzz surrounding Cyber Monday, it’s tempting to think that in-store sales would be subject to long-term decline. Quite the opposite is true. Six in ten of all new smartphones are purchased in-store,” said Daniel Rizer, EVP of Product Management, Marketing and Business Development at Synchronoss. “Clearly, performing content transfer in-store for so many devices with such large data payloads is unsustainable. Carriers and retailers must deploy backup and transfer solutions so customer content is securely hosted in the cloud before they walk into stores and can be ported to a new device at any time.”

This market insight underlines the critical role that Synchronoss Backup & Transfer™ will play in enabling operators and retailers to deliver this differentiated in-store and online customer experience. Synchronoss Backup & Transfer will ensure service providers effectively manage the transfer of customer data from old to new devices, cope with the surge in on-device customer content and effectively process an increasing number of device upgrades. For further details on Synchronoss Back up & Transfer™ click here.

More detailed analysis of this predicted content explosion will be unveiled by Synchronoss at Mobile World Congress 2016.

Notes to Editors:

*Based on using a 5GHz Wi-Fi router – these are not universally deployed, many in-store routers are significantly slower.

The holiday season is defined as the eight-week period from mid-November through mid-January. While the period covers 15% of the calendar year it accounts for 23% of annual smartphone sales.

About Synchronoss Technologies, Inc.

Synchronoss (NASDAQ: SNCR) is the mobile innovation leader that provides personal cloud solutions and software-based activation for connected devices across the globe. The company’s proven and scalable technology solutions allow customers to connect, synchronize and activate connected devices and services that empower enterprises and consumers to live in a connected world. For more information visit us at www.synchronoss.com.

The Synchronoss logo, Synchronoss and Synchronoss Integrated Life are trademarks of Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160127005214/en/

Source: Synchronoss Technologies, Inc.

Synchronoss Technologies, Inc.
Media:
Stacie Hiras, +1 908-674-0758
Stacie.hiras@synchronoss.com
or
Investors:
Seth Potter, +1 646-277-1230
investor@synchronoss.com