MobileWebsiteWatch

Opera Software’s report, “State of the Mobile Web, November 2008″ is a fascinating, quick read.

A couple of key points I think the report makes:

1. 2008 isn’t the year that mobile web went mainstream, but instead the year that we realize that we utilize “one web” on a multitude of devices.

2. The US moved from 7th position to 3rd position in the top ten list of Opera Mini using countries.

3. Page views increased 303% year over year, with 5.7 billion pages viewed in November 2008.

4. Portals, social networking sites and informational sites dominate the top 10 sites for most geographic areas.

I’m glad to hear that the major mobile players are in agreement that mobile web should not be seen as a “different web” but instead just a way that users are accessing existing websites from mobile devices.

ESPN is taking mobile web seriously. During the 2008 college football season, ESPN saw 59.9 million visits, a 185%.

Not bad, you say? How about an average of 7 minutes looking at content? How about the fact that visitors spent 2 more minutes on the mobile website on average than the wired website?

Maybe that’s because the mobile site is made “little” and gives users the info they need without a massive information overload? I’m speculating here.

Naturally, peak mobile traffic occurred during the SEC Championship game and the Texas vs. Texas Tech rivalry.

Click here to read more.

Papa John’s Pizza, the country’s #3 pizza chain reported that its mobile web pizza ordering service had boosted sales by a staggering $1,000,000 since its launch only a half a year ago! Considering that its online sales have grown in total 75% over year end 2007, it is not surprising that mobile is such a big boost and that it is growing fast. Just another example of how mobile web is paramount to contining sales growth in a shrinking economy. Your customers are already mobile, if you cannot serve them in that space, a competitor will.

Gotta have that new smartphone!!!

In a recent study by ChangeWave Research, it was revealed that despite the economic downturn that has hurt companies both large and small, consumers remain bullish on smartphone purchases. Of those polled, 12% reported planning to buy a new smartphone as soon as 90 days!

The data continues the string of reports suggesting that the market for high-end mobile phones — which typically offer Internet access, music, video and application features — continues growing despite the economic climate. IDC reported similar findings in April, while Gartner saw continued strength in the market last month.

With many of the newest smartphones that users are eager to shell out big bucks for, such and the iPhone and Blackberry Storm, an unlimited mobile web data plan is REQUIRED for service on the device. That translates to no stopping in the increasing demand growth for mobile optimized web content for those hungry little babys!

Its no secret that American’s increasingly rely on their mobile devices for web access, and a new study by M:Metrics shows that they browse the web a lot, and the number is growing fast. Highlights of the report include:

• American smartphone owners browse mobile web an average of 4 hours 39 minutes per month. That’s a half a workday!
• About 11% of smartphone users have an unlimited data plan
• 9 out of the top 10 most popular smartphones in the USA offer a QWERTY keyboard, allowing robust interaction with all types of web functionalities on mobile.
• Sizable data pool used for highly accurate results, n=3500.

In a similar non-shocker, top domains included mostly web sites that offer sophisicated mobile optimized views, such as eBay and Facebook. This shoudl serve as a pretty strong indicator that mobile web optimization a must for getting in front of your customers when and where it counts most–connecting with them on a more intimate level via their mobile device whcih they use for business, shopping, and organizing their social lives.

According to a study realeased on the 4th by the Kelesy Group, about 19% of cellphone-owning

Smartphones offered by Verizon

Americans now have a smartphone and, shockingly, 49.2% plan on getting one within one year. The study goes on to disect the things people use the mobiel web for which include: searching for products, getting maps and directions, getting info about movies and entertainment and accessing social networking sites. All of these areas clocked in double digit growth year over year and with half the cell phone owners out there who plan on upgrading to a smartphone in 1 year, that should accellerate more in 2009.

As this surge of mobile users comes online, you can be almost certain that once they are shelling out for new phones with advanced data services, a seamless and successful mobile web experience on any company’s web site will pretty much be a basic customer expectation. As we’ve posted here, smart companies like Sears, Gamefly, American Airlines, and Victoria’s Secret have already implemented an optimized mobile web view of thier sites and are building up market share. Getting mobile should be top priority for anyone not yet there as everyday customers who try and interact with you on mobile are frustrated and lost.

In the Sears Mobile press release (from Women’s Wear Daily here), Sears mobile innovations team leader Thomas Emmons says it best:

“If you’re marketing to people who read 85 percent of their e-mails on a BlackBerry, and you don’t have a good mobile site, you’re losing that customer,”

Sears is a great example of mobile best practices and others will have to either follow suit or get out of the way.

In a fantastic and comprehensive article in the Wall Street Journal today, reporter Nick Wingfield illuminates a very prescient analogy of the mobile world today: in the same way that companies were once eager to deploy laptops to executives and technicians to increase mobility, today smart phones are stepping up to take over that role thanks to the significant advantages they have in power and portability.

This is not to say that the laptop will got eh way of the dodo, but the truth is, more often than not business travelers leave their laptops in hotel rooms and rental cars while going to meetings and about routine business activities armed only with their lighter, and more portable smart phones. These souped-up cousins of ordinary cellphones, with email and other Internet functions, have become much more powerful in the past year.

For years, mobile workers have been ditching their desktop computers for laptops that they can take wherever they go. Now road warriors are starting to realize that they can get even more portability — and lots of computing punch — from smart phones…The result: Many travelers are now using smart phones the way they once used laptops — and laptops the way they once used desktop computers. Mobile workers rely on their laptops to create PowerPoint presentations and do other heavy-duty computing. But then they leave the laptops in their offices, homes or hotel rooms and take their smart phones out into the world.

Many are going even further opting to leave the laptop behind entirely and the demand for mobile devices that can handle more heavy duty business specific applications is huge. In a report published in January by research firm In-Stat based on a survey of 1,402 technology users, roughly 52% of respondents to the In-Stat survey said they could envision using a smart phone in the future as their sole computing device.

The overall result of this shift toward mobile has obvious implications on the need for mobile web optimization. For many Software as a Service (SaaS) companies such as Salesforce.com and Netsuite, mobile optimization has become a pressing and urgent need as well as a massive revenue driver. Salesforce.com offers business people access to its cloud CRM software from their mobile devices with a hefty price tag, starting at about $600 per user/year–almost twice the price of a copy of Micrsoft Office.

When deployed effectively (note keyword “when”), many companies are discovering that these costs are actually a real bargain price for the massive boost in efficiency and employee accessibility to work data. A study released by the Aberdeen Group highlights some of the advantages and audit-able improvements in efficiency and cost realized by the Salesforce solution. The supporting factor that makes mobile web optimization from both the customer and company standpoint is the explosive growth and demand for services in the mobile market. THis growth is occurring at a breakneck pace and both has not only executives and emplyee clamouring for more and more services they can access right from their phone but from customers, investors, and interested parties of all types the world throughout. After all, isn’t each road warrior exec who depends on their Blackberry for everything just another human who also wants: to order food, buy gifts online, book hotels and travel deals, check in on investor relations areas of compaines in their porfolios, get movie/concert tickets, or any of the million other things we all do on the Internet everyday?
Today, smartphone sales well outpace laptops, and that trend is rising faster than the switch from desktop to laptop occurred. See graph.

With this kind of growth coupled with the rapidly increasing adoption or inclusion of data plans in most mobile contracts (many smartphones like the iPhone and the G1 cannot be used without an unlimited data plan) companies of all sizes can no longer afford not to embrace mobile both internally and externally if they hope to be competitive and in touch with their customer, consumers, employees most importantly, their competitors.

In another of their many informative and wide based market studies, Juniper Research released a paper yesterday that declares that ad-funded social networks will provide the bulk of the revenue in the mobile user generated content space, and that that number is likely to be as large as $7,300,000,000 in only 5 years.According to report author Dr Windsor Holden,

“It’s clear that we have seen an industry wide shift regarding the implementation of business models in this area. Whereas initially there was a perception that users would pay a small mobility premium to access social networks on their handsets, it rapidly became clear that to achieve truly mass adoption, it would be necessary to offer free membership and then to augment that with advertising and the sale of premium content.”

This release was well times with the news from Reuters this week a that social networking has toppled porn, the longstanding champ, as the most visited sites on the internet. The fact that more and more people expect to be able to access social networking services on their phones should be a loud and clear call that mobile web content and functionality is in high demand. The availability of mobile optimized content on sites of all types is increasingly the users expectation.

The ads on social networking sites can be very targeted, and they will have little value if they don’t point the mobile user to an optimized Web site that can fully engage them and actually sell them, not just some little tent of a WAP site that is not up to date or dynamic.

Below is the graph of the expected growth of the market. (Note: PCD = Personal Content Delivery)

In a press release from comScore today, the boom in the everyday use of mobile web to get things done was confirmed and reinforced. According to the report, in June 2008, more then 20.8 million U.S. mobile subscribers accessed search during the month, an increase of 68% over same month year prior.

“It is interesting to note that as we see the number of mobile search users increase, the frequency of activity is also growing,” observed Alistair Hill, analyst, comScore. “The number of U.S. users accessing mobile search has more than doubled as a result of expanded 3G penetration and smartphone adoption, as well as the proliferation of flat-rate data plans. We have also seen a substantial improvement to the mobile search offerings in the U.S. market.”

As more and more people search for things on thier mobile devices, the more important it becomes to offer a mobile Web site for them to interact with. What good is your store or office if your customers can’t even walk in the door. The expectation of mobile optimized Web sites is now basic for most customers.

Furthermore, customers who arrive at your site via mobile search are likely your best customers. If they search for you on their phone, and then go to your site, this means that they are on the go, away from their computers, and most likly to be seeking specfic information on how to interact with you: such as finding contact information, store locations, buying a ticket or a specific product, or reviewing information about your products and pricing while shopping.

In a June press release by Cisco, the company talks about the results of its third annual e-commerce study. The results? Mobile commerce is charging to the forefront and is, in fact, already a large revenue driver with massive upside potential. Dick Cantwell, vice president of IBSG’s Retail / CPG Practice said of the findings

“Mobile presents a revenue opportunity for retailers and opens up a new era of multichannel retail. Multichannel retailing has morphed into a web of shopper touchpoints across stores, catalogs, mobile devices, and the Internet. Retailers must start offering shoppers an ‘interconnected shop’ if they are to take advantage of the mobile opportunity.”

The study notes that companies that are already executing the basics of e-commerce well can gain the trust, and the repeat business, of customers who want a fast, reliable and hassle-free and seamless mobile experience. Adding a mobile channel will be a key aspect in allowing customers to execute their transactions whenever they are so inclined and wherever they may be.

What this means in practice

As retailers already well know, customer loyalty and product familiarity are key factors in driving sales. Let’s consider a hypothetical example: a shrewd but longtime customer in the current economy will be comparing prices online and in brick and mortar stores across retailers. Imagine a customer shopping for a kitchen table. She looks at prices online. Then goes to Store A to see the product up close. She gets back into the car and drives to Store B to see if there is anything there that might be a better value or that she likes better. While in Store B, she pulls out her mobile device and goes to the mobile web site of Store A and calls up the product information of the first table. She decides the Store A’s table is superior, and now can complete the transaction right on the phone and either pick up the product or have it delivered. If Store A did not have a mobile site, they would be betting that that customer would actually return to the store, or return home and order the product from the Web site. But the time to close the sale may be lost. When the shopper return home to the internet, she may look for another product before completing the purchase. She may change her mind about buying a table at all. The ability to allow the customer a transactional experience on demand is paramount.

Retailers that scored highest and made the most money online were among the 6% who offered full mobile experiences

This major revenue expanding opportunity is made evident in the study results.

Mobile access can help retailers provide a unique, satisfying e-commerce experience. Customers expect to use their mobile devices to find stores, research products, make purchases and manage their accounts. In anticipation of this market opportunity, retailers should allow customers to access retail product information anytime, from any device. In addition, with the rise of social networking, web-based multimedia, and mobile commerce, retailers can now select from a broad range of technologies to reach customers. Monitoring what innovative companies are doing in retail and in related industries will help retailers adapt best practices to their own circumstances and strategies.

Revenue is driven in multiple areas by mobile commerce channel

Let’s recall our previous scenario and consider it from a slightly different angle. This time, our table buyer goes to her her favorite store, Store A. She sees some tables and is close to deciding on one, but then thinks to herself, “Store B across town sells tables too, but do I want to go all the way over there, or is this one OK?” She is not at home in front of the computer where she could check the retailers Web site and see what products they offered but she figures she still might be able to let her fingers do the walking by trying the retailer’s web site on her phone. Store B has a mobile web site. It loads up quickly and allows her to easily navigate to the product she is looking for. Now our shopper sees a table she likes while standing in a competitors store. Being the shrewd shopper she is, she is not going to buy it before seeing it in real life, so she goes to the store locator feature

on Store B’s mobile site and sees that a new location has opened up not so far away. She drives to Store B, sees the table, likes it and buys it.

Conclusion: Simply by providing the customer access to your web site at their convenience, on the screen they look at the most, their mobile phone, traffic and and revenue in all areas: on the regular web site, on the mobile web site, and in brick and mortar locations will experience a positive lift.

The more your customer can interact with your brand, the more likely and often they are to purchase your products.