Mobile technology

Mobile technology is exactly what the name indicates – technology that is portable; it refers to any device that 

you can carry with you to perform a wide variety of “tasks”.  It is technology that allows those tasks to be performed via cellular phone, PDA, vehicles, laptops, etc.  A standard mobile device has gone from being no more than a simple two-way pager to being a cellular phone, a GPS navigation system, a web browser, and instant messenger system, a video gaming system, and much more. It includes the use of a variety of transmission media such as:  radio wave, microwave, infra-red, GPS and Bluetooth to allow for the transfer of data via voice, text, video, 2-dimensional barcodes and more.

  

 

Mobile Industry Information: 

• What do consumers use their mobiles for? According to this US data: 1. calls; 2. SMS; 3. mobile Web; 4. apps; 5. games; 6. social networking; 7. music.
• A Motorola study conducted during the 2009 holiday shopping season indicated that:  worldwide, 51 percent of shoppers used their mobile device to help make an in-store purchase decision.
• Bank of America and Visa are currently testing mobile payments for consumers in the New York market; the test runs thru the end of 2010.  Additionally, Bank of America/VIA, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Discover Financial Services are also working together on a joint mobile payment system.
• Mobile has many uses in addition to marketing, these include:  emergency notification systems, customer service, customer payments, inventory management, employee dispatching, travel directions, non-profit fundraising, and much more!
• A study by Facebook indicates, of Facebook’s 500 million users, more than 100 million of them are using mobile phones to manage their account.
• Studies show that 84 percent of mobile phone users keep their device within 10 feet of them at all times.
• A ComScore study of U.S. subscribers thru March of this year indicated: 63.7 percent used text messaging on their mobile device, 30.1 percent used browsers via mobile, 28.6 percent downloaded applications, and 18.7 percent accessed blogs and social media via mobile.
• Over 20 million mobile users text in votes on American Idol each week the show airs.
• Studies by Nielsen Mobile indicate 97 percent of mobile subscribers will read an SMS (text) message within 15 minutes of receiving it; 84 percent will respond within 1 hour. 
• Average Mobile Marketing campaign response rates are typically 12 – 15 percent (as opposed to direct mail which averages 2 – 3 percent); some companies are seeing response rates as high as 60 percent plus!
• Mobile marketing is about much more than sending text messages, there are MANY effective ways Mobile technology can be utilized to grow your business such as:  QR codes, Mobile commerce, Mobile websites, using bluetooth and GPS technology, and much, much more!  The options are really exciting, and the opportunities are plentiful!
• Mobile marketing is NOT just to target teens and twenty-somethings; prime purchasers in the 35 - 44 and 45 - 54 age brackets are also strongly embracing the use of Mobile.
• When the Red Cross recently used Mobile to raise funds for Haiti (in $10 increments), almost $5 million was raised in less than 48 hours; to-date, more than $30 million has been raised – all via Mobile.
• Industry estimates indicate that by 2013 the U.S. will top 100% per capita penetration of mobile phone use.
• While 65 percent of email is spam, less than 10 percent of SMS is.
• A recent study by Compete.com indicates that almost 40 percent of consumers are extremely interested in receiving mobile coupons for a wide variety of services / purchases!
• Demand for mobile websites is expected to exceed PC accessible websites sometime in 2011; if you don't have one, you need one very soon!
• Worldwide sales of SmartPhones increased 24 percent to 172.4 million units in 2009 according to Gartner, Inc.
• The total number of mobile phone subscriptions worldwide has reached 4.6 billion and is expected to increase to 5 billion in 2010 according to the U.N. Telecommunications Agency.
• Nielsen found that 13.2% of US households accessed their bank account via a mobile device in Q2 2010, compared to 20.8% who accessed their account via the bank’s customer service call center.
• Per Nielsen while mobile banking access penetration is lower than other channels, it has grown almost 14% from Q1 2010.
• Nielsen data indicates mobile banking users bring greater value to an institution by maintaining average balances of $64,303, about 33% higher than the average customer’s balance of $48,384.