Mobile web use is exploding

A majority of U.S. mobile users now access browsers and apps. According to Nielsen, the minutes spent per month on apps more than doubled from March 2011 to March 2012. Many of our most time-consuming mobile activities — games, social networks, and music — are accessed through apps. Time spent on the mobile web was basically flat. And the most popular mobile activities are becoming even more popular: Social networking and games are the two largest categories of daily app consumption. According to comScore, 37% of all U.S. mobile users accessed social networks on their phones in May, while 34% of all U.S. mobile users played games. These are double digit increases over two years ago. The shopping process is being revolutionized: U.S. mobile commerce is expected to hit $10 billion this year, up from $6 billion in 2010 -- but that's only a small part of the story. According to Nielsen, 89% of smartphone owners have used their phone while shopping in stores in a host of different ways, most notably to access digital marketing campaigns, conduct research, and make mobile payments. And, of course, users are consuming more content than ever before: Digital consumers read more books a year on average than their print-only counterparts, the percentage of U.S. mobile users listening to music on their phone has more than doubled in less than three years, over 60% of smartphone and tablet owners access news on their devices, and mobile video consumption is experiencing rapid growth. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bii-report-heres-what-smartphone-users-are-doing-with-their-phones-2012-10#ixzz2A9lT47BQ Recognizing that mobile traffic is growing quickly — for some players, it represents between 30% and 50% of their online traffic! — many players are simply playing catch-up to avoid failing to serve their customers by not optimizing content for mobile. Mobile still looks complex and fragmented. It is difficult to master the pace of technology and platform evolution. Most companies look at mobile as a way to increase customer engagement and improve customer satisfaction — objectives that are often challenging to measure. That’s why it is so critical to align measurement systems accordingly. Some leaders, recognizing that mobile is not just another channel but an opportunity to deliver advanced contextual services, are investing dozens of millions of euros in the next few years to plan ahead for next-generation mobile experiences. Delivering a differentiated mobile customer experience requires investment not only in marketing segmentation and customer understanding, as well as in staffing and competencies, but also in infrastructure and in more agile processes.