I’m old enough (although, you’d never believe it to look at me!) to remember a few big technological changes that affected businesses. The first was the jump in Internet connectivity from modem speeds of 33/56Kbps to ISDN standards of 64Kbps and 128Kbps. The thought of doubling a businesses Internet speed (at the time the Internet bubble was gaining size) was an eye watering proposition for IT Managers. Then came along ADSL (broadband to you and me) which replaced ISDN speeds with 256K and 512Kbps and it changed all again. It changed the way we viewed the Internet and made us think more intrinsically about what was achievable online.
However, even throughout those changes, there were always the doubters – the first ones telling the world, ‘it will never happen,’ or cynically making assumptions that ‘people just won’t change.’ There were those who were vocal in their belief that it was ‘too expensive’ and would ‘never become big.’ They were, of course, all wrong and are all now using ADSL connections in business and at home.
Well in 2012, I’m seeing the same trend happen and I liken it to the above. The trend is mobile. I’m not talking about the speeds at which people connect (that’s for another blog post) but I’m talking about the cataclysmic shift in usage from desktop to mobile. I believe this change is as significant for businesses as internet usage take up was all those years ago.
How we consume content and digest media is moving to mobile. Marketing channels have expanded and we now need to consider the mobile and the tablet user when creating a strategy and it’s of no surprise that our entire blog this month is dedicated to mobile commerce.
We’ve seen lots of statistics about mobile, about how iOS and Android compete, about the percentage of businesses taking advantage and even those failing to acknowledge it whatsoever. But for any business in any doubt at all about mobile, there’s only one statistic you really need: mobile is 100% happening.