Mobile Insights is a new daily newsletter from BI Intelligence delivered first thing every morning exclusively to BI Intelligence subscribers. Sign up for a free trial of BI Intelligence today.
The End Of 'Offline': Beneficial Or Bad? (ZDNet)
Thanks to always-on mobile devices and the ubiquity of Internet connectivity, our lives are increasingly plugged into the network. Few can say that this isn't changing everything, from the way we pay for goods to the way we get places, to the way that we elect public officials (ahem, Nate Silver). There are seven billion people in the world. When we are all fully connected, will it unite us, or divide us? Will a world of digitally connected people help or hurt society? And how will we relate in that environment? "Humans are most happy when there's less diversity and safety," because it prioritizes social stability, according to Greylock Partners' David Sze. "Philosophically, that would mean everyone should stay separate. But the conflict, interaction, learning, stress that comes from that engagement at scale actually causes really great things to happen over time. Technology is pushing that to happen, rapidly. In the end, I do think that's better. I do."
Walmart: Mobile Will Drive 40% Of Online Holiday Traffic (Mobile Commerce Daily)
Black Friday is traditionally one of the biggest shopping days of the year, with retailers such as Walmart rolling out special deals and other incentives to drive shoppers into their stores. This year, mobile will play a key role as retailers look to leverage mobile to make the shopping experience more convenient. In the past six months, Walmart has focused on mobilizing its in-store customers by providing access to tools and content that help them shop in store, such as the In-Store Mode for its app that was introduced earlier this year. "We know that half of our Walmart customers already own a smartphone," said Ravi Jariwala, director of public relations at Walmart. "We expect mobile to drive 40% of Walmart.com’s total holiday traffic year – that is a substantial number coming from mobile,” he said.
E-Commerce Becoming More Popular Than Street Shopping (Econsultancy)
UK consumers are more likely to use e-commerce than make a trip to a brick-and-mortar store, according to new research from Tealeaf (an IBM company). A survey of 2,071 adults found that when it comes to making a retail purchase the use of a laptop or desktop computer (83%) actually beats trips to a store (81%). The difference is most noticeable among respondents aged 34-44 where the difference was 85% to 78% in favor of e-commerce. What's more, smartphones play a particularly important role in retail shopping - a quarter (24%) of UK consumers have used their device to access the mobile web for research and 12% have previously made a purchase. Respondents aged 25-34 proved to be the most likely to have made a retail purchase on their smartphone (29%) followed by 18-24 year olds (19%).
68% Of Smartphone Owners Will Shop Via Their Devices This Holiday (Internet Retailer)
Retailers with mobile commerce sites and apps may benefit from shoppers armed with smartphones this holiday season, according to Deloitte LLP’s annual holiday survey of consumer spending intentions and trends. 50% of consumers surveyed own smartphones, and 68% plan to use their phones for holiday shopping this year. These shoppers will primarily use their devices to get store locations (62%), check and compare prices (58%) and obtain product information (50%), the survey says. Smartphone-toting holiday shoppers may be highly valuable to retailers this season. These consumers are expected to spend 72% more than those who do not plan to use smartphones, spending a total $1,428 on the holidays across categories including gifts, entertaining at home, socializing away from home, non-gift clothing, home/holiday furnishings and other holiday spending. Read on for more stats.
Content Consumption Varies By Mobile Device Size (OnSwipe via CMSWire)
Content on 10-inch tablets is mostly shared by email, while content on mini-tablets and the iPhone is more often shared through Facebook. That’s one of the findings of a new report Content Consumption on the Touch Web by OnSwipe. On minis and the iPhone, the study found that email remains the second choice for sharing, at 29% and 32%, respectively, compared to 42% and 50%, respectively, for Facebook. On 10-inch tablets, the numbers are nearly reversed, with 48% of users sharing via email, compared to 32% through Facebook. Twitter sharing is less consistently related to decreasing device size than Facebook sharing, with 13% sharing conducted on larger tablets compared to 24% on minis. Check out the full report, quite interesting.
U.S. Mobile Growth Starts To Stagnate (Chetan Sharma Consulting via GigaOM)
In the third quarter, U.S. mobile operators added a net total of only 2.4 million subscribers, the lowest growth quarter since the cellular industry took off in the 1990s, according to a new mobile data market report from Chetan Sharma Consulting. While 2.4 million new customers does constitute growth, Sharma pointed out that 2 million of those new accounts were prepaid, which typically bring in a third to half the revenues of a contract customer. Another side effect making its way from Europe and Asia to the U.S. is the slow down in messaging traffic and growth. According to Sharma, the third quarter was the first in which SMS volumes began to shrink, both in terms of overall messages sent and average number of messages per subscriber. Over-the-top IP communications services have been eating into SMS’s growth for years now, but it looks like 2012 could be the first year where both messaging volumes and revenues will shrink in the U.S.
INFOGRAPHIC: The Takeover Of Mobile Internet (34SP via Imgur)
Will mobile Internet usage eventually overtake desktop internet usage? Predictions have been made, but how exactly are they forming? The current state of the mobile web is explored, alongside its global expansion and the reasons behind why many consumers are turning their backs on the desktop in favor of a mobile device. Mobile commerce and app development are also expanded upon and we see how they have been affected by the mobile industry. Has the desktop finally met its match?
Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
