Telecom & Technology Consulting
The mobile experience has become our default method for communicating, learning and gathering information. In fact, our devices are such a “regular” and constant part of life that one day soon we won’t even use the term “mobile.”
That day will be brought forth by a number of innovations and changes. First is the inevitable rise of Virtual Reality (VR), which will push mobile to a new level. The mainstreaming of VR will be heavily driven by Apple’s soon-to-come iPhone 8 and what’s sure to be a futuristic type of reality, as well as sophisticated chatbots running on artificial intelligence.
We see articles about The Internet of Things (IoT) almost every day. A subsection of that will be the Internet of Mobile Things, with the mobile device being the foundation of a connected ecosystem of services, products and appliances. That device that’s always in your hand will have an effect on an ever-growing list of the things in your life.
Speaking of things we always do, it’s now common to make financial transactions via mobile. A big part of that is purchasing consumer goods, a slice of the pie that will only increase. Last year saw $500 billion in mobile retail sales, and according to Gartner, “Mobile engagement behavior will drive mobile commerce revenue in the U.S. to 50 percent of U.S. digital commerce revenue.”
Mobile is become so prevalent, in fact, that some see it, in a sense, becoming the new desktop. This is especially true for younger people who see desktops as relics from their parent’s generation, and increasingly prefer to stream content on their phones or via products like AppleTV, Roku and Amazon Fire TV. On that note, mobile will act like digital personal assistants, with voice-activated tools helping you – and your kids – with daily tasks.
Interestingly, perhaps ironically, the expansion of the mobile experience may also bring back something from the past: the mobile web site. That’s because apps, as much as we love them, are becoming harder to distinguish from each other. The average person only uses a small portion of their downloaded apps, and batteries still need to be powered up each day.
Some tech experts believe that people may even start using the company web site more than its respective app. We’re already seeing this playing out with Facebook’s Instant Articles and Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages. Predictions are often based on little evidence, but we think there’s plenty of it for this particular forecast. All you have to do is look at what’s in your hand.
