For many, the rise of Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (and so many others) has happened so quickly that it’s hard to keep up. It’s easier if you’re growing up surrounded by this sort of technology, but for those of us who are more familiar with the ancient forms of communication such as email and Windows Messenger, many are wondering what will come next. The truth is though that Social Media’s successor is already here and most of us are already on board with it in the form of “Mobile Media”.
Over 70% of the worlds population now have a mobile phone, that’s over 5 billion mobile subscribers, and in places like the US, it’s 9 in 10 people. Children are now more likely to own a mobile phone than a book, with 85% owning a phone as to 73% having books! Now that’s a pretty crazy statistic, but I bet not that many of you are surprised by it when you think about it? Apple has sold almost 60 million iPhones world wide, while Google’s Android OS is growing at 886% year on year and now activating over 160,000 devices a day, across 60 devices in over 40 countries. And at that rate, Android will come from behind to over take Apple as the leading smart phone OS in 2011.
Technology & Leadership speaker, Scott Klososky, is renowned for accurately predicting technological developments. He believes that by 2013 mobile phones will overtake PCs as the world’s most common web access device. 172 million smart phone and web connected mobile devices sold in 2010, a 45% increase on 2009. Every organisation should be asking themselves how mobile can be used in communication and collaboration, increased revenue and customer satisfaction and improving critical business processes.
Stats aside, what this clearly shows is that businesses need to take mobile media seriously. I’ll wager a whole £1 you didn’t know if you searched for the same keyword on your computer and on your smartphone that they’d generate different results? This is because Google has already recognised that mobile browsing is important to users, so they will rank websites higher that are mobile-friendly. I’ll be talking more in the coming weeks about how I think businesses should be adopting mobile strategies, and don’t worry – I won’t forget about social care providers either!
Rm.