It’s surprising how many companies still do not have a sound strategy for entering the mobile space. The growth we’ve seen in the past few years has truly astounded us and even surpassed our expectations. Still, as we delve ever forward into 2012, we’re seeing mobile overtake traditional PC and laptop usage. Where does this leave your company? An even better question, where does it leave your customers?
5. The Exponential Growth of Smartphone Users and M-Commerce
With US smartphone penetration set to reach 50% by summer 2012, the numbers make it imperative for businesses to move into the mobile arena. By 2015, the number of worldwide smartphone users is expected to hit 1.2 billion. Now, businesses can reach record numbers of customers through traditional channels, as well as in places they normally wouldn’t have access. With the mobile market growing such as it is, users are making more purchases via their devices creating a boom in the m-commerce industry.
4. The Ability to Distribute Incentives
Mobile platforms are a great way to incentivize purchases, visits and other behaviors. What better time to ask a potential customer to try your restaurant than around lunchtime when they are at work? Think of an app for a political campaign that alerts a user on voting day, revealing the closest locations where she can cast their ballot.
According Business 2 Community, in an article titled 3 Reasons Mobile Apps Are the Future of Mobile Marketing, “Mobile Dependence Day conducted in June 2011, 31% of US smartphone owners completing a purchase a result of mobile marketing did so through usage of an app.”
3. Your Website Analytics Say So
According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), there are 4.6 billion mobile subscribers around the world and as they expected the number of mobile cellular subscriptions globally reached five billion in 2010 and continues to climb. With current growth rates, web access by people on the move is likely to exceed web access from desktop computers within the next five years.
This means that mobile phones have become the most universal communication device in human history. This also means that the website owners around the world need to think about what this means for their customers, audience, and websites.
2. Your Target Demographic Is The Smartphone Demographic
Pew Internet and American Life Project said that 50% of all U.S. adults have apps on their cellphones either coming from downloads or pre-loads by the carriers. Nielsen says that 43% of all U.S. adults have smartphones and that 62% of adults aged 25-44 have smartphones. This all brings us to a question all mobile developers should be asking themselves: Who are you developing for?
The smartphone sweet spot, and by extrapolation, the target for mobile developers looking to make money, is the adult market of college educated, urban and suburban males. We see this through Pew’s survey results. Games, social networking and news are the top apps that people spend time with. A study by analytics firm Flurry shows that 25-34 males spend the most time with freemium games and make the most transactions.
1. Your Customers Are Asking For It!
There’s a problem to solve, you can provide additional value for your customers. Apps are not an ideal way to attract new customers – but mainly to provide additional value to customers gained through other means.
While the reason for creating them may be similar, before you engage in a mobile development project, you
need to ask yourself some key questions.
- What business need will the mobile application serve?
- What methods will the development team use?
- Can your infrastructure handle success?
- Does your team understand more than just development?
- What does the user really want?
Smartphones have already become an integral part of our daily lives, and it’s clear that tablets have taken hold as the next evolution in mobile.
Photo Credit – joe.ross
