Posts

Mobile To Outpace Desktop Web By 2013

/in , /by
Looking ahead to 2014, Gartner estimates that 3 billion of the world's adult population will be able to conduct transactions via mobile or Internet technology.

Looking ahead to 2014, Gartner estimates that 3 billion of the world’s adult population will be able to conduct transactions via mobile or Internet technology.

Mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access devices worldwide by 2013, according to a new forecast by research firm Gartner. That’s an even more aggressive outlook than Morgan Stanley’s projection that the mobile Web will outstrip the desktop Web in five years.

Gartner estimates the combined installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will surpass 1.82 billion units by 2013, eclipsing the total of 1.78 billion PCs by then.

But the firm warns that many sites still are not optimized for the mobile Web, even though cell users expect to make fewer clicks on their phones than on a PC. To successfully expand into mobile, publishers will have to reformat sites from the small form-factor of handheld devices.

Looking ahead to 2014, Gartner estimates that 3 billion of the world’s adult population will be able to conduct transactions via mobile or Internet technology. “Cash transactions will remain dominant in emerging markets by 2014, but the foundation for electronic transactions will be well underway for much of the adult world,” according to the firm.

In a more qualitative prediction, Gartner says that by 2015, context will be as key to mobile consumer services and relations as search engines are to the Web. Where search provides the key method for organizing information and services on the Internet, context will be critical to delivering personalized user experiences on smartphones.

“Context will center on observing patterns, particularly location, presence and social interactions. Furthermore, whereas search was based on a ‘pull’ of information from the Web, context-enriched services will, in many cases, prepopulate or push information to users,” stated the report. New offerings like Google’s “Near me now” feature — providing information on nearby business and services based on a mobile user’s location — come to mind in that vein.

Gartner added that any Web company that doesn’t become a mobile context provider risks handing over customer ownership to a competitor that is providing location-aware or other services that create context for users. As Gartner expects Facebook to be the hub of the social Web by 2012 (it’s not already?), it should also play a key role in social networking to mobile phones.

Three important issues are raised in the article by MediaPost on the Gartner research.

 

Mobile To Outpace Desktop Web By 2013

Mobile To Outpace Desktop Web By 2013

1. Most companies have not optimized their websites for the Mobile Web. To have a good presence on the Mobile Web, an adjusted website for the device must be set in place.

2. Context will be key for mobile just as search engines are for the Web. The context will be able to service the user personalized relevant content (in time).

3. Search engines were based upon pulling information to users at their request, mobile on the other hand will be able to prepopulate or push information on unique aspects as the context, the person and content wanted at that point of time.

Companies need to start thinking about any implications the Mobile Web might have for their business and target groups. Fast consecutive occuring life-cycles will make it much more difficult to intervene when the mobile has come to its peak of importance. A technology like Augmented Reality, which is going to grow the coming years, will even grow further by this, where it could be possible that Proximity Marketing will have a second more contextually relevant chance. Last but not least, this could impact media convergence as well, where TV, PC and Mobile will blend into new cross-media experiences which shall depend much on Mobile as well.

What is your take on this?

Source: Gartner Research

Burger King enters mobile commerce full-throttle

/in /by

Fast-food giant Burger King has entered the mobile commerce arena by letting consumers place orders and pay for them their iPhone. Now that’s fast food.

Restaurant locator - Burger King enters mobile commerce full-throttle

Burger King enters mobile commerce full-throttle – Restaurant locator

Burger King Mobile Restaurant Locator

Burger King teamed up with Gomobo and PointAbout for the development and design of the application. The Burger King NOW location-aware iPhone application is currently being tested in the Queens, New York, area.

“The idea of the iPhone app is to go the full nine yards with a rich mobile ordering platform,” said Noah N. Glass, founder CEO of Gomobo, New York. “This is the first case study that we have done with an iPhone application and we expect to launch these types of applications for other quick-serve restaurants we are working with.”

Gomobo helps fast-food and restaurant chains mobilize their services via mobile Web sites, and now through iPhone apps as well. Clients include Subway and Dunkin’ Donuts.

Burger King, the nation’s No. 2 burger-and-fries chain after McDonald’s Corp., has been known for its innovation with new technology, including its highly viral Subservient Chicken online viral marketing campaign earlier in the decade. Ordering and paying through the iPhone application is part of that DNA.

The iPhone’s GPS functionality lets users skip the step of entering in an address into the app. Instead it automatically finds the Burger King location closest to them.

When users place their order and come in to pick it up, they can skip the line and just grab their food, since they have paid for it via the app.

The application also tracks and saves order history and then acts as a loyalty card by offering incentives and deals.

Customize your Burger King meal

Burger King enters mobile commerce full-throttle

Burger King enters mobile commerce full-throttle

The goal behind this application is to drive incremental same-store sales – a key metric for the restaurant industry, Mr. Glass said. He also said that orders placed via the application have been 25 percent larger than in-store.

When customers start using the service, they increase their frequency of visits by 42 percent and the mobile offering takes existing loyal customers and increases their value by 75 percent.

The application is helping Burger King drive additional sales, since new customers can discover the stores near them that they may have not known about previously.

In terms of security, the application is fully secure. So, customers don’t have to worry about their credit card information being misused.

Also, the information is stored within the application, so that it doesn’t need to be re-entered each time the customer places an order.

When picking up their food, customers just need to give the last four digits of their mobile number, to confirm they are in fact the person that placed the order.

PointAbout helped Gomobo develop the application. It took the guts of the Burger King mobile site, which was developed by Gomobo, and poured it all into an iPhone experience.

Also, PointAbout made it possible for the application to remember the phone ID and allowed it to pull GPS information.

“Traditionally QSRs have focused on the four walls concept, which means doing marketing within the four walls of the restaurant,” Mr. Glass said. “They focused on what could be done in-store to make sure that patrons come back

“The mobile device allows them to extend where transactions take place and let customers make transactions from anywhere, therefore extending those four walls to the consumer’s hands,” he said. “It is also a much more efficient way of taking an order and the payment.”
Source: Mobile Marketer