The number of new generation mobile devices is growing rapidly all over the globe. Although Smartphones didn’t exist until 2007 and tablets only appeared in 2010, experts prognosis about 1,25 billion sold unit by the end of 2013. This trend has already made a huge impact on the world of advertising.

If the forecast is right, in 2017, every literate man will have a smartphone and/or a tablet. At this time, there will be about 4,5 billion literate man on Earth, and instead of 1,2 billion smartphones, there might be 3,2 billion, plus 1 billion tablets. This generates a huge target field.

Mobile devices became one of the most important communication platforms pretty quickly, because they radically change the habits of consuming. Just in comparison with television: while TV was the dominating form of content-consuming for decades, nowadays people spend almost equivalent time with their apps.

Also, it becomes clear that companies which fail to react quickly enough are going to lose customers for sure. For instance, in the US, 57% of customers wouldn’t recommend shops without a proper online presence to their friends, and 40% of them certainly change others in such cases. The importance of these numbers will rise further in the near future, because in 2014 there will be more people, who reach Internet through mobile devices than people who connect to the web via desktop. So today’s challenge is not just to build a website, but to make a mobile app and/or compatible page for a company.

But smartphones and tablets won’t stop here. They are changing our shopping habits along with our media-consuming. 4 out of 5 customers with a mobile device have already purchased this way and if a shop has an online store, it instantly becomes 5 times more attractive than their rivals with none. It’s not accidental that experts reckon about 20% growth of online media spending in 2014. But the smartphone and tablet manufacturers have even better indicators, especially in the developing countries: they expect 40% more sales in China and India and 25% in Latin-America for the next year.

It seems that the new generation mobile devices are unstoppable. But the market’s new tendencies are pretty unpredictable in the next few years. Because changes are coming so fast that even the best diviners should be cautious with their tips.

Sources:
qz.com/145704/slides-mobile-is-eating-the-world/

digby.com/mobile-statistics/