Pret A Portable
Mindshare, 2012
Everyone remembers the
story of the boy who cried wolf. In the digital
world our equivalent is mobile. We are so
used to mobile evangelists proclaiming it’s
the “year of mobile” that you can actually
hear the collective groans at industry
conferences. Eyes roll, shoulders shrug, minds
tune out, and eventually people start playing
around with their mobile phones. Now I’m
from Ohio so I’m not entirely sure but I think
that’s what they call irony.
"There are now over 6,500 types of Web-capable mobile devices." |
I don’t want to be alarmist but during all of
these years of “year of mobile” some pretty
significant changes have occurred in the
way people are consuming the Internet. In
fact, according to multiple studies, including
GroupM and Morgan Stanley, more people are
or very shortly will consume the Internet on
mobile devices than on PC’s. Not a shock when
you dig into the numbers. Tablets and other
mobile devices are proliferating like gremlins.
Just consider IDC data from last autumn that
suggested tablet devices are now outselling
PC’s in the USA. dotMobi estimates there are
now over 6,500 types of Web-capable mobile
devices on the market. According to recent
Forrester research, the average American now
has five IP-enabled devices ranging from TV’s
to gaming consoles to tablets. And they are
voraciously consuming media across all of
them, often at the same time.
Outside the US and Europe a similar story
is unfolding but with nuances. While nearly
everyone has a mobile phone, most of these
devices are not “smart” yet. However, that
trifecta of cheaper smart devices, inexpensive
subscription and pay-as-you-go plans, and of
course good content will lead to an imminent
explosion in mobile Internet usage. And the
numbers are big, really big. According IMS
Research, smartphone sales in China will
more than quadruple between 2010 and 2016
to reach 400 million units by 2016.
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Pret A Portable (pdf, 1.3 Mb)