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The Mobile Industry!

By Yhosibell Prieto


There are many factors highlighting why your company should get involved in the mobile market, so why haven't you? Today, there are around 4 billion mobile subscribers around the world, and more of these subscribers are increasingly performing Internet searches through their mobile devices. That is a huge audience potential that should not be undervalued, especially given that mobile searches are actually expected to surpass desktop searches by 2014. Even though the mobile market is still in its early stages, the growth of this industry is moving fast and growing worldwide. So in order to further their audience reach, it is important for companies to begin thinking about their mobile marketing strategies. For Example, according to the comScore 2010 year reviews, in December of 2010 almost 47% of U.S mobile subscribers were mobile media consumers. What this means is mobile subscribers accessed applications, browsed the mobile web, downloaded content, or accessed the mobile Internet via SMS. The number of media consumers has increased since 2009, by 7.6 percent. So, what are companies waiting for? There regular site to magically appear in mobile web searches? Not happening! Two separate indexes are kept by Google, a mobile and a web index. When you're searching on a mobile device, Google knows it and will serve you search results based on that mobile index. So, both companies big and small, if you're not mobile ready yet, you may be losing out on traffic and revenue from a huge and growing mobile market.

The invention of the smartphone, as well as adoption of the 3G and 4G technology, enabled the success of the mobile market as a successful marketing channel and another source of revenue for advertisers and marketers alike. Smartphones are like mini computers that allow users to perform different activities, like surfing the mobile Internet. For example, people today are no longer using their mobile devices as a voice communication tool, as has been its more traditional use; now people are using it to access the internet to obtain news, entertainment, information, etc. Today people are spending an average of 2.7 hours a day surfing the Internet on a mobile device which represents a third of the time Americans spend sleeping and twice the time they spend eating. As people today continue purchasing these devices, the mobile market will continue to grow. In fact, according to Nielsen, the purchase of smartphones has increased 29% in the last six months, and 45% of the survey respondents indicated that their next mobile device will be a smartphone. From these numbers it is noticeable how large the mobile industry currently is and how much bigger it will become. What gave the popularity to the smartphone is clear; and it is that these devices actually go beyond what a feature phone can perform. Smartphones allow its users to explore and communicate in different ways as well as provide access to information instantaneously.

One of the biggest advantages of the mobile industry is its worldwide reach. In developing worlds, cellphones represent a tool of health, education, and economic solutions. In fact in the article "The importance of a mobile phone in developing countries", Africa and the Middle East has a mobile penetration of 30% in 2007. More revealing is that by the end of 2010, cellphone penetration was expected to surpass 50% in these regions! Mobile phones represent a medium from where you can reach a worldwide audience with varying income levels. This reach can benefit profit or nonprofit, local, and international businesses alike.

People are consuming information in real time, which begs the question, are companies without a mobile presence missing out on real time dollars? Yes! Local businesses can really be missing out on a huge opportunity if they do not have a mobile website or are not engaging in advertisements on mobile websites. Why? Because more than of all local searches are performed on a mobile phone! Consider the scenario, a young family wants to visit a restaurant in their local town and does a quick search for restaurants to check out menu options. Those restaurants that have a mobile optimized website are more likely to show up in a mobile Internet search versus a restaurant with a regular website, which does not render well on a mobile phone and therefore none too popular with the Google in terms of ranking. So, an old ma' and pa' shop with excellent food and service, but missing a mobile presence will lose out time and time again to big restaurant food chains that have invested in mobile websites. Mobile searches are actually expected to overpass desktop searches by 2014; so now it is time to invest in a mobile strategy if you haven't already. While all companies, but especially local businesses, should consider mobile marketing as part of their strategy, all companies should at least, invest in mobile websites to further their audience reach and turn mobile web traffic into foot traffic.

People are consuming information in real time, which begs the question, are companies without a mobile presence missing out on real time dollars? Yes! Local businesses can really be missing out on a huge opportunity if they do not have a mobile website or are not engaging in advertisements on mobile websites. Why? Because more than of all local searches are performed on a mobile phone! Consider the scenario, a young family wants to visit a restaurant in their local town and does a quick search for restaurants to check out menu options. Those restaurants that have a mobile optimized website are more likely to show up in a mobile Internet search versus a restaurant with a regular website, which does not render well on a mobile phone and therefore none too popular with the Google in terms of ranking. So, an old ma' and pa' shop with excellent food and service, but missing a mobile presence will lose out time and time again to big restaurant food chains that have invested in mobile websites. Mobile searches are actually expected to overpass desktop searches by 2014; so now it is time to invest in a mobile strategy if you haven't already. While all companies, but especially local businesses, should consider mobile marketing as part of their strategy, all companies should at least, invest in mobile websites to further their audience reach and turn mobile web traffic into foot traffic.




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