Cyber Monday being Mobile Monday showing how much mobile has grown over the past few years.
But, the evidence of mobile’s ascendency goes beyond Monday’s buying binge. The growth means changing the landscape, new ways of interacting and a realization that things really have changed, and will continue to do so. Take a look at ComScores latest mobile numbers [http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2012/11/comScore_Reports_October_2012_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share] and you’ll see a few things:
1) Oddly, the mobile OS market share looks remarkably like the search market share not too long ago. Replace Yahoo with Apple, and Ask for RIM, and you’ll get a frightening sense of deja vu. (okay, swap Microsoft and RIM’s share).
| Top Smartphone Platforms
3 Month Avg. Ending Oct. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Jul. 2012 Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens |
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| Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers | |||
| Jul-12 | Oct-12 | Point Change | |
| Total Smartphone Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| 52.2% | 53.6% | 1.4 | |
| Apple | 33.4% | 34.3% | 0.9 |
| RIM | 9.5% | 7.8% | -1.7 |
| Microsoft | 3.6% | 3.2% | -0.4 |
| Symbian | 0.8% | 0.6% | -0.2 |
Google grows by a couple of points per quarter and suddenly, they have a 65% share and the company everyone thought owned it (today Apple, ten years ago, Yahoo!), is wondering what hit them.
This seems far fetched. But, 10-12 years ago, Yahoo! was seen in a very positive light. AOL was on the way out, Google was a baby (not even) and I don’t think anyone really believed Yahoo! was going to have it’s lunch taken away so readily.
Apple has already started show the dents in the armor. From leadership that is no longer dynamic to product debacles that force the clearing of entire teams in the company, it is clear the luster is dimming (except to the die-hards).
2) Browser use is at parity with apps.
As html 5 becomes more deeply exploited, browser based experiences will continue to improve. With cross-platform accessibility, it is a better choice for most companies. Obviously, rich games, or other very elaborate apps will need to stay in that environment. But, most of the apps we see on the handheld devices can be just as well executed in the mobile browser. I would not be surprised to see apps plateau relatively soon while browser usage grows past it.
| Mobile Content Usage
3 Month Avg. Ending Oct. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Jul. 2012 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone) Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens |
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| Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers | |||
| Jul-12 | Oct-12 | Point Change | |
| Total Mobile Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| Sent text message to another phone | 75.6% | 75.9% | 0.3 |
| Used downloaded apps | 52.6% | 54.5% | 1.9 |
| Used browser | 51.2% | 52.7% | 1.5 |
| Accessed social networking site or blog | 37.9% | 39.4% | 1.5 |
| Played Games | 33.8% | 34.1% | 0.3 |
| Listened to music on mobile phone | 28.3% | 28.7% | 0.4 |
3) Social continues to spread into Mobile. There are few left who doubt this, but the numbers affirm the understanding that social is mobile. I think that if we pull this by age bracket, no one would be surprised to see the social connection double on the younger age groups.
Anecdotally, we only need to look around us to see the dependency we now have on mobile devices for seemingly everything: email, text, pictures, video chat, phone calls, music, social, games, weather, GPS / maps, e-readers, alarm clocks, flashlight, contact management, videos / movies, TV remote (heck, tv), banking, e-wallet, airline ticket,…
As digital marketers, inclusion of mobile is now an assumptive. Plan accordingly.