Its four years since the first iPhone was released at the end of June 2007, marking a dramatic turning point in the mobile industry. Since then other phone companies have fought back and smartphones have evolved from an expensive luxury to a common tool with the market set to grow 55% this year.
The seemingly endless list of features that enable accessibility, functionality and convenience are enticing consumers to ditch their ‘talk and text’ devices and upgrade to a shiny new smartphone. Forget texting and phone calls, now we have multiple platforms to stay in contact with others. Through email, Facebook, Twitter, Video calling, live chat – the possibilities are never-ending.
The challenge for brands at the moment is about creating content which can easily be consumed across a multitude of platforms, attracting a wider audience. One particular sector that is rapidly becoming a channel that retailers can’t ignore is M-commerce, with 82% of retailers working on a mobile website and 42% developing a mobile strategy.
Customers want to buy online, they are no longer pessimistic, and in fact they themselves are looking at new ways to do so, mainly via mobile. This new trend is reflected through recent figures that show 82% of consumers want to buy products on mobile, with the online industry expected to be worth £70bn by the end of the year. Brands such as Marks & Spencer have seen a dramatic usage in their mobile website with more than 5.5m people using it in the past year.
However it’s not only purchasing that consumers want to do through mobile, they also spend time searching products, comparing prices and reading product reviews. Google have conducted a study on mobile movement to look further into how the smartphone has affected the way consumers search and shop, drastically changing the retailer and consumer relationship. Below are some of the statistics presented from their findings.
- 70% use a smartphone while in the store
- 54% use a smartphone to find a retailer
- 49% use a smartphone to compare prices
- 48% use a smartphone to get promotions and coupons
- 44% use a smartphone to read reviews and product info
- 34% use a smartphone to search in-store inventory
(source: >notixtech)
Nevertheless despite the growing use of mobile search and purchasing by consumers, 14% of retailers say they have no plans to enter this space and 75% of retailers haven’t added mobile into existing strategies. At the rate the mobile industry is developing, now is not the time to be falling behind, those that do will have a long future of playing catch up ahead of them.
So what does the future of mobile hold?
I think we are just seeing the beginning of the mobile industry as smartphones are set to become faster, cheaper and brighter with better internet access and of course many more games. 2011 may well become the year of the mobile wallet, making mobile payments a mainstream commodity for consumers as we see a push in the mobile payment sector. If you’re not part of this you’ll risk being forgotten and once that happens it will be very hard to make a comeback in such a competitive, fast paced environment.
I think it’s safe to say that the word ‘smart’ is playing much more relevance to the word ‘phone’ in the instance of the Smartphone.
Sources:
- New Media Age magazine
- Direct Marketing Association
- Notixtech