By: Steph Dlugon
A recent Mobile Marketer article by Ted Hoy points to some impressive stats such as:
“In 2008, approximately four times as many mobile devices shipped worldwide as compared to the volume of personal computers.”
And
“ Forrester Research suggests that more than 85 percent of European adults use a mobile phone. And in 2008, almost half of these Europeans accessed the Internet from a broadband connection through a mobile device at least once a week, if not every day. “
Hoy goes on to predict that “by all indicators, it appears that sometime in the not-so-distant future, mobile shopping is going to be as mainstream as its online counterpart.” That’s not a tough prediction to make. We can all agree there are plenty of reliable indicators that stress the importance of adopting a solid mobile strategy. But a very critical piece of that strategy involves mobile apps.
According to Hoy, “the downside to ecommerce applications is that they are specific to certain brands of smartphones and, as a result, are likely to attract a noticeably smaller audience. “ I understand his logic, but I think it focuses on the wrong line of thought.
Part of a successful mobile campaign involves knowing how to ask the right questions. For example, instead of wondering how many current customers have an iPhone or iPod Touch, think about how many of the 50 million plus iPhone/iPod Touch users can become customers.
Retailers will do a considerable disservice to themselves if they don’t take advantage of the tremendous potential of mobile apps.
