Imagine you are walking in the US town of your choice. If you stop everyone over the age of 13 you come across and ask, approximately 99 times out of 100 (approximately 257 million in the US) of them will tell you they have a cell phone. 50 out of 100 (127 million) will tell you they have a smartphone, and that number is growing. So what’s the big deal? Why does it matter that more and more Americans are using smartphones?
- Smartphones aren’t just for calling. In fact, a recent survey by the European Telecom company O2 indicates that the telephone is only the 5th most popular app on the smartphone. According to the study, in terms of time spent, browsing the internet was the most popular activity on the smartphone, followed by social networks (Facebook, Twitter), gaming and finally listening to music.
- Accessing the internet via mobile is increasing. According to mobiThinking.com, the proportion of global Web page views from mobile devices (versus PCs) in North America has risen from 7.8% in May 2011 to 8.6% May 2012, and continues to grow. This means that mobile phones are starting to replace computers as the main vehicle for web access.
- M-commerce is growing. Nearly 1/3 of North American e-commerce transactions in July of 2012 originated from mobile devices. This is another area where smartphones are beginning to replace pcs, particularly with localized goods and services. For example, people looking for a deal from a nearby pizza place are more likely to use their smartphones on the fly than their laptops or pcs.
- The market for web advertising via mobile is skyrocketing. Currently, the market for mobile ads in the US is around $6 billion. By 2016, it is expected to quadruple to nearly $24 billion. As mentioned previously, much of this growth is fueled by location-based services such as mobile apps that combine with gps to find local deals.
What does all this mean for InnoVest Club? InnoVest Club is positioned to capitalize on this growing mobile trend in several ways. First, unlike the big players Google and Facebook, InnoVest Club is building mobile technologies from the ground up. Each of our major product and service categories will have a corresponding mobile app which will be engaging and easy to use.
Second, the apps will include e-commerce capabilities in order to generate mobile revenues directly. Finally, InnoVest Club is developing a novel mobile advertising platform. As this market is relatively new and untapped, there is a great opportunity to help develop this space and attain a large market share. Look for exciting things at InnoVest Club in the coming months!
Innovation Storm 