Last updated: 11 April 2014
Here at Mobile World Congress, plenty of new mobile devices and services for mobile phones are being announced, launched, demoed and discussed. Just see this list of gadget news that Stuart Miles of Pocket-Lint has compiled. That’s not to mention all the service, software and system announcements happening too around NFC, LTE and M2M to name a few.
The one big question on everyone’s lips, however, is where the future lies. Is it with Apple? Or Android? Will we all be using tablets? Will the desktop PC be dead in ten years? Who’s going to be the next disruptive influence in this highly fast-moving industry?
While we cannot answer these questions, we have a good idea of how to adapt to the changes they will introduce. Today we attended a session hosted by Nielsen to discuss the Mobile Media Revolution and how mobile is transforming media featuring Emily White from Facebook and Louis Gump from CNN. Media is undoubtedly one of the other fastest-changing industries in the moment as platforms evolve and consumers seek their infotainment for free. You can imagine that Facebook and CNN are especially keen to know what lies ahead and how they can best prepare their highly popular platforms and content to meet consumer expectations.
There were some interesting stats, facts and claims that emerged from the panel session, including that the average Android user spends two thirds of their time on apps over the web. Tablet users are more receptive to mobile advertising than smartphone users and there isn’t a one device policy – consumers have several complementary devices for multi-purpose activity.
One particularly interesting nugget that I picked up on was that Nielsen’s research claimed consumers are getting more comfortable with paying for mobile content such as apps or downloads on smartphones and tablets. And I wonder how much this is down to advances in security around purchasing and exchanging banking details on the mobile device.
As our smartphone, mobile, tablet and future devices of choice evolve, so do the services available on them. From voice, text, data to the web, apps, business activity, photo sharing and banking, devices need to cater to the consumer’s preference and provide the service they wish to use on the device they choose. In a secure, yet still convenient fashion. We think this is feasible. Do you?
