According to the Ericsson Mobility Report, 97% of US households now have a mobile phone. Mobile phones are becoming increasingly popular because they pack in many services all within a single device – browsers, mail clients, camera, mobile readers. They are quite literally, a one stop shop.
Highly competitive data plans, along with falling prices of mobile devices themselves, are the cause of the increasingly large internet traffic now routed through mobile phones.
The increasing amount of internet traffic that comes from mobile devices (now 25% globally) is being optimized to provide a fine tuned mobile experience and is essential for any business. As about 80% of this traffic is driven by mobile apps, it then becomes crucial to invest in apps for your business. This drives traffic, increases customer engagement, and eventually sales. Mobile voice search, now gaining traction, supports the necessity of having a mobile optimized site.
Mobile ad spending is growing exponentially in large part, thanks to 4G LTE networks and sophisticated credit markets. A classic example is Facebook. With no mobile ad revenues until as recently as 2011, Facebook’s mobile ad revenue at $1.95bn makes up two thirds of its total ad revenue as of Q3, 2014.
The penetration of, and utility therein of mobile devices, doesn’t stop at highly developed markets. In India, mobile internet traffic now outweighs personal computer traffic, and m-commerce marketing strategies have become the crux of any e-commerce company. In Africa, mobile payment systems are all pervasive, a major catalyst for microfinance. In underdeveloped nations, with infrastructure issues, mobile device penetration actually overtakes fixed line device penetration.
Mobile is in fact, technology for everyone, everywhere.
Summed up beautifully by Benedict Evans of Andreessen Horowitz: Mobile is Eating the World