A nice summary of recent research by Ofcom (an independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries) by UK blogger Colette Burke detailing the growing infatuation of the British for the smartphone, so I republish it verbatim below. Burke's conclusion is right on regarding the need for companies to respond sooner rather than later by making their websites more mobile-friendly. And it won't be long before we start hearing how 'mobile' not only refers to smartphones but also tablet PCs. In fact you just did. More of my comments following Burke's column.
Friday, 28 October 2011
Colette Burke - Land Strategies Farming Blog
"A nation addicted to smartphones" is how Ofcom summarises its findings from a recent piece of research, saying that 27% of all adults and almost half of teenagers now own a smartphone (a mobile which connects to the internet). Smartphone owning numbers have exploded in the past year, and are set to rise further as annual sales of smartphones are now higher than those for the standard version.
More internet users connect to the web via their mobile than a laptop (45% versus 38%), and the number is even higher among 16-24 yearold where 71% access the internet via phone.Smartphone usage is definitely here to stay and businesses are thinking through how they tap into the trend, whether it be for advertising their products, providing information, or directly selling goods online.
At the very least, websites must be simple enough to be quickly accessed. Consumers will rapidly lose patience if they have to wait for information to be downloaded. This means either having a site tailored to mobile usage, which automatically comes up when searched via phone, or having a link redirecting users from the main site to a mobile friendly one. Amazon and Tesco are good examples of a speedy tailored link. Asda’s site take an age to download.The other option is to provide an app, or application, which sits permanently on the phone for easy access to a specific activity.
Although most usage is still for socialising, downloading music, gaming, and searching for information, the IGD reckons that smartphones are starting to change the way groceries are bought online. According to their research, 1 in 10 online shoppers are using smartphones to shop. Ocado claims that 15% of customer checkouts during the first half of the year came via their smartphone app. Tesco has a handy app which allows shoppers to scan the barcode of a product on their phone whereupon it is automatically added to their online shopping basket.As to future developments, the IGD predicts that tailored apps which build a relationship with individual consumers are the way to go.The time has probably come to view selling and marketing via the mobile phone as a crucial part of any business plan. The research finds that 81% of smartphone users never switch them off, even when they go to bed, and that huge numbers are happy to use the phone whilst socialising, at the meal table, and even in the bathroom.
Smartphone usage is now a part of life. Those businesses without a smartphone presence may find themselves competitively disadvantaged.
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It's nice to see a perspective, boosted by fresh data, coming from outside the US for once. Ofcam's research revealed some additional findings that didn't make it into Burke's installment, especially in terms of socializing.
So much for the UK. What about elsewhere? A global survey carried out last February and March by IDG Global Solutions involving nearly 13,700 participants from 16 countries essentially demonstrated that the UK results are pretty typical. Although IGS identified differences in terms of preferred smartphone brands and usage by region, it was clear that the popularity of mobile devices is rapidly growing worldwide, and that the traditional cellphone is on its way out, to the product scrapheap that is littered by VCRs, fax machines, and desktop computers.In the bathroom and at the dinner table
The rapid growth in the use of smartphones – which offer internet access, email and a variety of internet-based applications – is changing the way many of us, particularly teenagers, act in social situations.
The vast majority of smartphone users (81 per cent) have their mobile switched on all of the time, even when they are in bed, with four in ten adults (38 per cent) and teens (40 per cent) admitting using their smartphone after it woke them.
Over half (51 per cent) of adults and two thirds (65 per cent) of teenagers say they have used their smartphone while socialising with others, nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of adults and a third (34 per cent) of teenagers have used them during mealtimes and over a fifth (22 per cent) of adult and nearly half (47 per cent) of teenage smartphone users admitted using or answering their handset in the bathroom or toilet.
Teenagers are also more likely to use their smartphone in places they’ve been asked to switch their phone off such as the cinema or library – with 27 per cent admitting doing so, compared with 18 per cent of adults.
More than 2/3s of the respondents worldwide claimed to use a smartphone for personal (73%) or business (69%) purposes. Nokia and Apple lead the way in Europe, while Apple, Blackberry, and Samsung the preferred choices in the US. Moreover, 70% of smartphone users say they browse the Internet regularly and use mobile applications, with general and IT news sites most popular, followed by social networking access.
As if you don't have enough stats for one day, here are some more 'in a nutshell' global mobile stats from mobilThinking:
Consumer mobile behavior
1) What do consumers use their mobiles for? Japanese consumers are still more advanced in mobile behavior, using mobile Web, apps and email more, but US or Europeans text and play more games. Most popular mobile destinations are news and information, weather reports, social networking, search and maps.
• In all countries surveyed more consumers used their browser than apps and only a minority will use Web or apps exclusively.
2) US consumers prefer mobile browsers for banking, travel, shopping, local info, news, video, sports and blogs and prefer apps for games, social media, maps and music.
3) Mobile searches have quadrupled in the last year, for many items one in seven searches are now mobile.
• Did you know 71 percent of smartphone users that see TV, press or online ad, do a mobile search - will they find your mobile site or your competitors’?
4) SMS is the king of mobile messaging. 8 trillion text messages will be sent in 2011.But consumers are also embracing mobile email, IM and MMS rapidly.
A2P -application to person SMS e.g. automated alerts from banks, offers from retailers, m-tickets is expected to overtake person to person SMS in 2016.
• Is your opt-in CRM database part of that revolution?
5) Mobile ad spend worldwide is predicted to be US$3.3 billion in 2011 sky rocketing to $20.6 billion in 2015, driven by search ads and local ads. In the US over half of U.S. mobile ad spending is local – Japan particularly – continues to dominate global mobile ad spend.
• With US$1 billion in annual mobile ad revenues Google is the main recipient of mobile ad spend.
6) To what types of mobile marketing do people respond best? In the UK and France opt-in SMS gets the best results, in Germany mobile Web ads get best results.
I remember our first TV - a monstrous Zenith black and white box with an essential horizontal hold button, rabbit ears antenna, and three channels. No HDML ports, no USB or ScanDisk inputs, no remote control, and I don't even think the word 'computer' had been invented yet. If you're a teen today, that mini-techno-biography must send shivers up your spine. Because you've grown up with laptops, the Internet, smart phones, and remotes up the wazoo. You are the avant-garde of new technology.
There's been much written of late about the so-called--implicitly or explicitly--'blank generation', otherwise known as 'Millennials', including a feature New York Times Magazine story (18 August) penned by Robin Marantz Henig ('What Is It About 20 Somethings?"), so I'm not going to belabor the point here. The recent Pew Research Center 
report on 
So far, so good. Yet we are also hearing more and more the 'vacant' label in association with discussions about a brand new life cycle stage, 'Emerging Adulthood' - the developmental period between adolescence and adulthood. Not yet considered by marketers, this is the stage of in-between, what with financial independence delayed, schooling prolonged, progressively increasing delay in moving away from home, and the responsibilities of raising a family lingering beyond the far-off clouds. Emerging adulthood does not appear to be a uniquely American phenomenon - it's happening here in France (where 60% of male and 49% female 20-24 year olds still live with their parents, about a 10% increase compared to 1982), 
According to a Civic Science spokesperson,
Okay, here's a question for you: You're at a fine restaurant. It's getting late, and after a terrific appetizer and main plate, you're feeling kind of filled. There's maybe a half glass worth of wine left in the bottle and your companion obligingly informs you that it's your's for the taking. So now the big decision - to dessert or not to dessert. Oh yeah, I almost forgot the question. Does it matter whether they simply list the name of the dessert on the menu, show a picture of the dessert, or bring the dessert cart around? I mean, if you want dessert, and you trust the restaurant, you're going to throw caution to the wind, order the dessert, and be on your merry way. Should it really matter how you are informed about the dessert selection? This scenario kind of reminds me of when I was living in Philadelphia, PA many years ago and had to cope with buying alcohol in the State Stores. Other than a few bottles on display, your choice of wine, beer, or spirits came down to that long list of barely readable options in a flyer placed on the counter separating the goods from the clientele. Out of sight, out of mind. In essence, these situations allude to a more general question, which is 'Does the form in which an item is presented to consumers matter, and if so, does it have an impact on the amount of money people are willing to pay for it? The relevance of these questions has never been more apparent, as companies that have relied so heavily on brick & mortar retail selling continue to shift their strategies to the digital marketplace. As Barnes & Noble bookstores gradually fade from our collective memories, what are the implications for consumer behavior and sales? 
An article published in the September issue of the journal American Economic Review ("Pavlovian Processes in Consumer Choice: 
restaurant after another Turkish gyro establishment present full-color pictorials of their horrendous offerings in window and sidewalk displays. And when I see them, one phrase pops into my mind, as if by rote: 'cheap dump.' So obviously there were a number of variables not factored into the Caltech studies. But some were. For example, by now you may have thought, 'well, having that dessert tray in front of me that you were talking about earlier, my guess is that the smell of the items would serve as a stimulant, increasing the desirability of the items and tempting me to go for it, regardless of price.' And I would agree that is a pretty astute observation. However, the Caltech researchers also thought of this and so repeated their food experiment with different 'goods' (a variety of trinkets from the Caltech bookstore), with identical results. Subjects were indeed willing to pay 50% more for items they could reach out and touch. In a third experiment, the researchers separated the items for bid from subjects by erecting a plexiglass barrier, thereby eliminating the possibility of physical contact with the items. In this case, the value given to the physically present items dropped to the same level as the text- and picture-based items. Rangel explains what appears to be going on here: 
to be packing up shop. Although we shouldn't underestimate the power of technology. Already, some e-tailers are experimenting with ways to make the online shopping experience more similar to the offline experience. For example, as early as 2007, Brookstone experimented with an online 
Finally, if you need any further evidence of the importance of touch for consumers, check out this Sept. 1st New York Times 
