Mobile Is Taking Over!
Did you know that mobile business software will eclipse traditional business software by 2015? This was one of the startling statistics presented by Dan Homrich, CEO of Smartsoft Mobile Solutions, to the Georgia CxO Forum this morning.
Dan Homrich of Smartsoft Mobile Solutions addresses the Georgia CxO Forum
What exactly is mobile business software? Dan gave examples, such as a pharmaceutical company whose CEO needs to approve every purchase order. He may sound like a micromanager, but the company purchases millions of dollars worth of chemicals at a time. This CEO flies all over the world and is rarely in his office. So Smartsoft created an app that allows him to quickly and easily see the most important details of each P.O. on his smartphone, and approve the purchase with a swipe and a click.
You’ve probably already heard the statistic that more people will access the Internet via mobile device than desktop by 2012. What’s perhaps more surprising is that the sales of smartphones is predicted to surpass the sales of PCs that same year. That’s only two years away – it’s critical that professionals be able to conduct business while on the road.
And…studies have shown that the average time to make an online purchase via mobile phone is one day, versus seven days via desktop computer.
I’ve noticed myself a trend that Dan talked about, the divergence of .com and applications. That is, some people in the mobile space believe that the future of mobile will rely on apps that are downloaded to each smartphone (and tailored to each platform). Dan’s obviously in this camp, since his company develops mobile apps.
Others I’ve spoken with have said “But that’s costly and limiting and you have to rely on people downloading the app. It makes more sense to build a mobile website that anyone can access on their smartphone.” This attitude makes total sense on the surface, but Dan said that people will use what they like, and people like to use apps. (I know personally I get frustrated trying to browse the web on my iPhone and see the site on the tiny screen – I much prefer apps.)
So what’s a marketer to do? Both, according to Dan. Start with a mobile web presence so everyone is covered. In the process of developing the mobile site, you’ll learn some things that you can then apply to building an app. You may not want to build a custom app for every smartphone platform out there. Depending on your audience, you may want to build one for two or three platforms – cover 80% of your target audience and let the other 20% access your information via the mobile web.
This seemed like a very rational solution to a very real problem. We’ll keep an eye on how businesses, particularly B2B marketers, continue to leverage the exploding mobile trend.
(Special thanks to Tim Smith and Thompson Technologies for hosting the event and managing the Georgia CxO Forum.)
