What People Are Doing with Mobile - Apps, Browsing and Shopping

The world is going mobile! Many of us have basically computers in our pockets and purses. Our cell phones are now cameras, movie makers, computers, calendars and entertainment sources. Wild right?

Check out some of this information from Google’s Our Mobile Planet:

44% of people in the U.S. now own a smartphone
66% of smartphone owners use it to access the Internet on a daily basis
94% use smartphones to search for local info
96% having researched a product or service on their device

The world is actually now in the palm of our hands. So what are we doing with this amazing super power? We are consuming information, playing games, watching videos and even shopping. Three of the biggest things people are doing online is using mobile apps, mobile browsing and shopping. I think each of these will be interesting to watch develop in the near future. Technology is changing and it is changing the way we consume information and go about our daily lives.

Apps – People are spending more time using apps. Apparently, people use mobile apps more than anything else when consuming media on their phones (more on that later). Popular apps like news, weather, social networks and games seem to consume a lot of people’s time. Twitter just started boasting that 55% of their users are now accessing them through mobile devices versus the desktop application.
Browsing – Mobile browsing usage remains steady (for each user – how often they browse). What is greatly increasing is how many people are browsing with mobile phones. As more and more affordable smartphones and tablets are hitting the market, there is definitely more and more mobile devices in people’s hands… to browse. So sometimes that data can be confusing to interpret. The data debate continues on what is more popular (apps or web browsing) but web BASED apps in HTML5 could actually be a threat to the app market – we will have to wait and see.
Shopping – Mobile devices are changing shopping behaviors. The three biggest things people are doing with their devices when they shop is browsing through products, comparing prices online with in-store and reading reviews. Brick and mortar stores are having a hard time competing with those comparison shoppers. This will be interesting to watch develop over time as well.

So what is a smart, savvy business owner and/or marketer to do? Think strategically about how you are delivering content to your mobile users and customers. What value can you bring to them while they are on the go? It will definitely be interesting to see how consumer behaviors and businesses change due to the mobile shift.