So that was 2012. On a personally level it wasn’t one of my
favourites, but also I think from an industry point of view it went a lot
better than perhaps we all thought it would at the start of the year. We only
have to stay out of triple dip recession in the first half of 2013 and we are
laughing.
2012 was notable of course for the 25th and 20th
anniversaries of GSM technology and SMS respectively, but it also marked the
watershed point at which more smartphones than normal phones were in use in the
US (with the UK not far behind). The year also saw the rise of the tablet –
with more than 10% of m-commerce likely to be carried out on a tablet this
Christmas: a massive increase on last year.
In many regards I think that in years to come, technologists
may well deem 2012 to have been the year of mobile. And let’s face it we have
been waiting for it to be the year of mobile for at least the 25 years since
GSM technology was mooted.
But what does it mean for 2013 that everything is now so
mobile? From a commerce point of view, Christmas 2012 offers a great insight
into how mobile is likely to be used across the retail sector in the coming
months. And its not as straightforward a picture as you might imagine. Shoppers
are not simply switching to a smartphone or a tablet and lying back on the
couch and buying things there instead of on their PC or in a store. Oh no.
For starters, different devices are being used for different
(and often multiple) parts of the sales journey. Advertising on websites, TV,
in magazines and newspapers and on mobile itself often prompts some smartphone
based research. This initial research is often then done in more depth on a
laptop or tablet. For small ticket items the purchase often then occurs on one
of these channels from home, but for the bigger ticket items, a visit to a
retailer is often done and then how the goods are purchased can be anything
from there and then in the store, to showrooming to click and collect to going
home to think about it then buying on mobile.
Tablets, meanwhile, are being grabbed when the mood takes
and lead to surfing and some buying but also a lot of social interaction about
potential purchases.
Location services and mobile targeted ads are some way off
the mainstream, but 2013 is likely to see these things also added into the mix.
So retail and mobile is a heady mix, with some really
interesting things to come in 2013.
But the wider telemedia world also has some really key
developments taking shape. Media is increasingly becoming interactive and
digital and consumers are increasingly ready to pay for some things. Growing
numbers of consumers are using digital channels to consume ‘multimedia’ content
and increasingly are seeing that paying for value-adds –often in app – has
some real value.
On the back of this, but with a much wider remit,
,microbilling is about to explode on mobile in 2013 for everything from buying
a can of coke to paying for carparking to having a flutter on the nags to
buying things in app.
And there is a growing move to make operator billing easier
and more straightforward to deliver these services. We are, I believe, going to
see some true telemedia payment coups in the coming year and, but this time
next year, operator microbilling will be a natural part of the mix. We might
even see retailers starting to get on board with that too: which will make 2014
look even more interesting. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
