Did you know that 4 billion people on the planet use mobile phones but only 3.5 million use a toothbrush.
The world today is experiencing a technological push ,with which the number of smart phone users by 2016 will be around 2 billion. Don’t believe me? here is the data. Emarketer, a leading research and analysis firm in their research have revealed that more than a quarter of global population will use smart phones by 2015 end with India witnessing fastest growth of smart phone users.
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Following the trend it won’t be long when the desktop PC will be needed only for typing long emails or only to work in office. It might come to a situation where it will be used to create more smart phones applications. But what about in a business environment? Are they going down this path too?
A big event that signifies this mark is e-tailer giant myntra to go ‘mobile-only’ starting from 15th of May. Myntra which draws 80% of its traffic and 60% of its sales from its mobile application, is expecting to take that number to 90% by year’s end. In addition to the booming ecommerce sector in India, this is further proof that the m-commerce industry is on the rise too. Not only Myntra but its rival Snapdeal states that 45% of the transactions from mobile were made via the app, while the remaining 55% were made from the mobile site. The company also revealed that 20% of all app users open it every day. While another e-tailer champ Jabong stating it to be 50-50 for both mobile app and the website.
Pay through mobile (abbreviated as Paytm) has appended itself to the list by launching Paytm wallet in 2014 which has become the preferred mode of payment for other mobile app leviathans like Uber, Bookmyshow, Makemytrip. Paytm assures money in the wallet is 100% safe. They are RBI licensed wallet and the money is protected in Escrow account with a national bank.
Not only customers usage and the increase in number of smart phones but several other factors contribute to this shift to m-commerce and eventually ‘mobile-only’. Reasons why mobile apps will become important for companies are –
< ![if !supportLists]>1. < ![endif]>Increase in number of smart phone users and usage– From dropped prices of smart phones to setting a trend. From the only source to access internet in few developing countries, smart phone users as well as the usage of smart phones is on a constant rise.
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< ![if !supportLists]>2. < ![endif]>Manifoldness of possibilities – Whether your day-to-day focus is business management, marketing, sales, SEO, social media, advertising, software development, or customer relationship management, the mobile device has increasingly become the preferred tool for work and communication. How quickly and effectively an organization plans, develops, and adapts to deliver quality mobile experiences will likely become a competitive advantage.
< ![if !supportLists]>3. < ![endif]>Ease of development & Enhanced user experience on the go – Apps offer an unmatched user-experience which mobile Websites or widgets are unable to provide. The new design trend “Mobile first and desktop second” will enable businesses to start using responsive web design to continue with the mobile view of website and ultimately converting to a mobile app.
< ![if !supportLists]>4. < ![endif]>Proximity to the customer– Whether you are commuting or sitting ideal, one thing definitely comes handy and that is your smart phone. It will be easier for the m-commerce to send push up notification as an alternative to the advertisement and also to keep user aware of the updates , new deals and the exiting opportunity a business has to offer.
< ![if !supportLists]>5. < ![endif]>Connectivity with 3g and 4g – Going by the fact that most websites are accessed using desktops or laptops , Wi-Fi and LAN are the most used source of internet. With blooming 3g and the new 4g comings enabled smart phones will enable users to stay connected.
< ![if !supportLists]>6. < ![endif]>Discoverability of apps – There might be questions on visibility of a certain apps on different application stores but if we compare apps available to the number of website, it would be a comparison of drop with the ocean.
< ![if !supportLists]>7. < ![endif]>Tremendous opportunity for Entrepreneurs – We are bombarded with new ideas almost daily for which we need a platform to turn them into reality. Figuring out wireframe will be sufficient to launch the application enriched in innovations.
Although there is still a long way to go before many companies learn how to benefit from and how to engage in this exciting new market, but it won’t take long before it becomes standard business practice, especially for media, consumer goods, fashion e-tailers, automotive, and food companies to communicate with their customers via an app.
And most probably only app. Thus ‘mobile-only’.
