As of the early part of 2009, there were 4 billion mobile devices in the world for every 1 billion computers.
According to Sara Santiago, president of Roll Mobile, a mobile marketing company in Milwaukee, the number of mobile devices is likely to increase in 2010. New tablets, new smart phones, new applications, faster technology, expanded networks and falling prices will put endless amounts of information directly in people’s hands whenever and wherever they want it.
Businesses will need to adapt to the mobile space, or be at risk of alienating their consumers and having to play catch up later on.
“Mobile is becoming the norm,” Santiago said. “Mobile technology is moving more quickly than any other medium we’ve ever experienced.”
People typically talk about the three screens, she said.
“First, people will go to their televisions for information, then to their computers and the third screen historically has been their mobile device,” she said. “I think 2010 will be the year mobile devices will push their way into the No. 1 screen slot.”
Businesses will need to recognize the fact that mobile technology is here to stay, she said. They will need to find new ways to reach their customers, and they need to make their company’s information, websites and technology more compatible with mobile devices.
“More and more people are going to expect that your company will be available through a mobile device,” Santiago said. “Not being available in a medium where your clients and customers prefer you to be, may be a turn off for them. To ignore the mobile world would create a whole new set of problems in the future.”
According to Gartner Inc., a Connecticut-based information technology research and advisory firm, in 2011 smart phone search rates are expected to exceed the PC search rates of 2007.
“Technology is changing the way we are digesting content,” Santiago said. “So as business owners we need to change the way we disseminate content and information.”
She expects to see an increase in smart phone usage over the course of 2010.
“Right now 60 percent of the traveling public have a smart phone device, and 80 percent of business travelers do,” she said.
Mobile phone usage in the U.S. is expected to near 100 percent by 2013 as vendor competition increases, making pricing for data packages and devices more accessible. Santiago said.
“For a lot of people, their mobile phone is their most important avenue for digesting content,” she said. “Competition in the mobile market is going to increase this year, and we will see cheaper and cheaper data plans and devices emerge. The mobile trend is already becoming more accessible to more people.”
Greg Meier, a technology-based business startup expert from the Milwaukee area, says mobile technology is simply another way to address a bigger trend surrounding the focus of companies shifting to Internet-based technology, or cloud computing.
“Devices have always been around and are going to continue to change and grow with the technology,” Meier said. “Those devices are just ways to access information on the cloud (the Internet).”
This will be the year that cloud computing goes more mainstream, Meier said. Businesses should take a look at the technology and see where adopting a cloud computing system could improve costs for the bottom line.
According to Meier, the shift to cloud computing will reduce the cost of a company’s IT infrastructure completely. Businesses can use Google apps, base camp, or other web data storage applications instead of using expensive software, or pricey equipment, he said.
“The ability to cut IT infrastructure costs and move the costs to the cloud is pretty significant,” Meier said.
Meier has been moving all of his company’s data into the cloud in order to save money, but also mentioned that 2010 would be the year that people start getting more serious about answering questions of security within cloud computing and mobile technologies.
“As a business owner, I’m less concerned with the devices being launched than I am with the security and how much money it is going to save me,” he said.
