5 Reasons Why Mobile Matters: Swaying the Skeptics

30% social network usage is from mobile (source)

Mobile matters. This is true for nonprofits and commercial organizations alike. It isn’t just about mobile’s projected market growth, it is also about its impact potential. 

If the key to an effective communications strategy is selecting the right channel/s, then mobile must be on your short list. After all, your target audiences are probably already using mobile as their primary or preferred medium for information consumption on the web. If not, trends suggest they will be within the next few years. 

Need help convincing the skeptics? Point to growth in these five key areas:

1. Adoption. Mobile users are quickly becoming the largest user base on the web.
In other words, mobile internet usage will outpace PC internet usage within the next two to three years. As evidence of this, just look at the rise in the amount of time spent on mobile devices and mobile traffic to popular web destinations:

• Apple, which was traditionally the only carrier for Apple's iPhone, has seen a 4,932% increase in mobile traffic data in the past three years.
   
• International Data Corporation is predicting nearly 25 billion mobile app downloads in 2011, up from 10 billion in 2010. This is more than a 100 percent increase!
   
• Users of iOS and Android regularly spend 79 minutes a day using apps and download approximately nine apps per month.
   
• In 2010, there was a 600 percent growth in traffic to mobile websites.
   
• 40 percent of all tweets in January 2010 came from mobile devices.
   
• One in every two mobile searches performed is for local information.

2. Market Share. Mobile devices are already outselling PCs.

The mobile app market is also ripe, especially in the area of mobile health. For instance, Chillmark Research, a market research firm that has been continuously monitoring the evolving landscape, predicts that the mobile app market in the healthcare enterprise will grow to $1.78B within the next three years.

Mobile internet usage overtakes PC (source)  

3. Reach. Mobile devices are one of the few modern web technologies shrinking, rather than furthering, the digital divide.

Mobile devices are disproportionately prolific in some rural and impoverished areas. According to various studies, even households that lack a PC or paid internet service provider tend to have one or two cellphones per household. They are also being used by an ever-widening demographic. As a result, mobile is showing promise as an effective channel to reach traditionally underrepresented populations (e.g., Hispanic community members and those of low socioeconomic status). This will continue to be true as mobile devices and data plans become increasingly affordable.

4. Innovation. Today’s popular smartphones (iPhone and Android) offer unique, innovative capabilities not available on PCs.

 These include:

• GPS - precise location information and a variety of map-based applications,
• Greater storage capacity for HD video, photos, and music with live uploading,
• Intuitive direct touch and gesture-based interaction,
• External add-ons that enhance your mobile device’s feature set, including creditcard readers, running trackers, blood glucose meters, and TV receivers,
• Haptic display technologies which allow the user to "feel" different surfaces as his/her finger moves across a touchscreen, and
• Near field communications (NFC), which enables simple transactions between two devices in close proximity to each other (this technology is now widely expected to allow for payment by smartphone in the near future).

5. User Demand. Users now expect tailored content. It is possible to meet this expectation through other channels, but mobile is really opening up the possibilities. Mobile capabilities such as geo-location, push notifications, preference setting, SMS, and mobile applications are providing ways for users to gain access to what they want, where, when, and how they want it. This is reinforcing to mobile users, as they are always on-the-go, busy, and distracted. 

As this demand for precise, tailored content continues to expand (even PC users are already using RSS feeds, custom dashboards, social bookmarking, twitter feed aggregators, local search tools, email alerts, and other capabilities to find exactly what they want), mobile will concurrently grow to satisfy the demand. 

The increasing sophistication of smartphones will also compound this reality. Each new mobile release presents greater possibilities for a user to receive precise information, almost automatically, based on his/her location, preferences, settings, past history, situational context, etc. Each new mobile app provides a unique service, product, or type of content catered to a niche sub-segment of the population. 

Summary

Mobile can no longer be ignored. Many individuals already rely on mobile devices as their preferred means of accessing the web. The increasing sophistication of smartphones and the growing demand for mobile applications will continue to accelerate adoption, especially among traditionally underrepresented populations. These trends highlight the importance of understanding and leveraging mobile as a channel for content distribution, user engagement, and outreach.

Organizations that fail to adapt by incorporating mobile into their communication plans will run the risk of missing their target audiences. Inevitably, their users will turn to other organizations that offer comparable information or services in their preferred (mobile) format.

Scare tactics aside, it is important to look for ways to experiment and use mobile in your everyday communications activities. As part of our ongoing effort to help our clients understand these issues and begin to use mobile effectively, we will be publishing more mobile-related posts as part of our "Mobile Strategy" blog series. In subsequent posts, I'll provide tips, guidelines, and best practices to help you effectively capitalize on mobile opportunities. Check out my most recent one, the "Mobile: Getting Started Guide."

References:

Special thanks to other mobile thought leaders for their research and exploration. Below you will find links to references that make for a great initial reading list and have also informed the take-aways in this post:

• More Smartphones Than Desktop PCs by 2011

• IDC Predicts Cloud Services, Mobile Computing, and Social Networking to Mature and Coalesce in 2011

• Mobile First

• 40% of All Tweets Come from Mobile

• Infographic: Mobile Statistics, Stats, & Facts  2011

• 10 Mobile Tech Trends into Watch in 2011

• Pew study finds rapid increase in mobile Intenet use by low-income Americans