Mobile and Ultraconnectivity
Every year it’s said that “this will be the year of mobile!” Well, moving into 2012, it certainly will be (again!). When breaking down mobile device growth year over year, there is continued growth in a) the adoption rate for consumer’s for both tablets and smartphones, b) advertising spend and c) technological developments.
The Demand for Location and Local Content
With the evolution of mobile, GPS capabilities have become widespread, and so has the interest and demand for local content. People will continue to search for things that are most relevant to them given their context: the city they’re in, their location within the city, and the people that they interact with. We really are at the cusp of data integration, segmenting different data sources and being able to truly understand the intention and context when people are searching, giving us the ability to present them with information that’s useful where and when they need it. When looking at it from a service and marketing perspective, it’s very likely that when you’re pushing the right content, at the right moment, in the right location, you are removing steps that need to be made to ultimately convert a user into a buyer.
Social is Everywhere
Social media penetration is at its highest point ever. It’s available to over 75% of the world (86% in Canada) and people are already “socially active” as much as possible. The next evolution will be to make the time spent throughout social media much more efficient and faster overall through social apps. If you consider the data related to overall mobile phone usage, this makes sense, especially because search is the top activity of mobile users. Social networking is a close second.
It’s important to remember that SoLoMo isn’t a product in itself, it’s a way to access and interact with content. It first needs optimized and accessible content to deliver. Content producers and brand owners aren’t oblivious to the opportunity for growth and early adopter capitalization that SoLoMo offers. Smartphones themselves are adding various levels of personalization through voice activation and dictation applications, and we will only continue to see that “voice in your phone” adopted and connected through other complimentary products, as well. Imagine you’re walking by an electronics store and you hear your phone calling you by your first name, reminding you that the new TV you were looking at is only on sale for one more day.
on
I think that the mobile phone has been a huge success. I have learnt that while the population around the world may not have the same access to computers, many people do have mobile phones. Thus mobile marketing may be the way to get in touch with the largest part of the population.
on
There is definitely opportunity for this to grow I think, but it’s at a stage now where things still aren’t working properly. The facebook for android app, for instance, is so slow to load anything that it is almost worthless. How are they suppose to give me relevant, useful local social interactions if I can’t even load it?