Why Incorporating Mobile Into Your Organization is Necessary

A recent report published by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers claims that mobile internet is the future of business, and I wholeheartedly agree. There are several reasons why incorporating a mobile component into your business not only makes good sense, but is necessary. First off, mobile is more convenient. You can’t always drag your laptop around with you, but you most likely have your phone on you at all times. This is a powerful reality that a surprising number of businesses have still not done anything with. Mobile phones are portable, fast, location-based, real-time and 24/7. Mobile allows for up-to-the-minute reporting (Twitter, texting), instant media streaming (Spotify, Pandora), location sharing (Foursquare) and location-based searching (Yelp, Google Places). Furthermore, mobile is global. I remember a trip I once took to the Sahara desert in Morocco. We were in the heart of the desert, about 5 hours away from civilization, with no running water and only Berber nomads nearby. Even in this environment, I was surprised to see the nomadic man running our camp with a cell phone and reception as crisp as any U.S. city. Even with the income disparity between first and third world countries, the ubiquity of cell phones is undeniable. We are heading towards a landscape where billions of people all over the world are plugged in in real-time. The well-equipped and cost efficient infrastructures for mobile are causing several media companies to skip the middle steps (TV, radio, etc.) and go straight to mobile with their content. Kleiner Perkins estimates that total smart phone and tablet purchases will surpass PC and notebook purchases for the first time ever this year and onwards. They also predict global mobile data traffic to grow by a factor of 26 over the next 5 years. Some interesting statistics for top social media companies demonstrating the growth of mobile are below: Facebook - 200 million mobile users in 2011 vs. 50 million in 2009 Twitter - 40% of all tweets are mobile Shazam - 100 million mobile users in 2011 vs. 50 million in 2010 Pandora - 50% of all Pandora users subscribe via mobile Currently, ad spend for the web is equal to only half the amount of time people are actually spending on the internet. Online commerce makes up 5% of all retail sales in the US and mobile is quickly following suit. There is a huge untapped opportunity for businesses in mobile advertising. Imagine checking in to an airport, getting reviews of the best shops in your terminal, having a mobile coupon for the shop you choose pop up on your phone, being able to compare the price the shop is charging with vendors all over the world, and then letting the cashier just scan the coupon directly from your phone as you make your purchase. That’s only the start of where we are heading. If you are not in the mobile game yet, it is time to start figuring out how you can participate. If you don’t, you may get left behind.