The world’s gone mobile… or haven’t you heard?
Mobile is the most engaging technology humans have ever possessed
Tsunami adoption
As of the time of publication (March 2014):
- 91% of all people on Earth have a mobile phone.
- One-third of those are smartphones.
- Just 6% are tablets.
These breathtaking numbers are just one way to frame people’s changing relationship with technology.
Actually, smartphones held the fastest adoption rate in tech history… until tablets blew that record out of the water. Tablets hit 6% global adoption barely 30 months after the first iPad was released in the spring of 2010. It took 4 years for smartphones and 10+ years for color TV to reach that mark.
The expected annual growth rate for tablets is 18% for the 2013-2017 period, and there’s nothing slowing the wave. Some countries and age groups are already far exceeding the projections of where the world will be by 2017.
Take the U.S., for example.
Smartphone penetration in the U.S. has recently hit 64%, and the latest reports estimate that 35% of Americans already own a tablet.
As usual, change is led by the young.
81% of American young adults (25-34) own a smartphone, closely followed by a younger group (13-17), where penetration hits 70%. It’s not really surprising to learn that the typical American gets their first cell phone around 12 years old.
What makes these numbers even more impressive is that, contrary to what you may think, the U.S. isn’t the leading country regarding smartphone and tablet adoption. In the second quarter of 2013, it ranked a lowly 13th in the ranking of countries with the highest smartphone penetration. You can grasp the full phenomenon by looking at the numbers of countries like South Korea and the UAE.
Within hand’s reach
When it comes to understanding how smartphones are already impacting our lives, the usage facts are even more revealing than the fast adoption rate.
According to Arbitrion and Edison Research, 91% of smartphone owners say their mobile device is within arm’s length either always (60%) or most of the time (31%).
What’s more, a SOASTA study reveals that firing up a smartphone is the first thing 84% of us do after waking up.
Shockingly, caffeine can wait.
Taking our smartphone everywhere isn’t just for the sake of carrying it: we check it 150 times a day. Let’s do the math: that’s 6 times per hour, once every 10 minutes. No gadget has ever before engaged people in such a way.
Smartphones (and tablets) are the most attention-catching gadget humanity has ever possessed.
That’s not by chance. Connected mobile devices are multipurpose, ubiquitous tools. We are using them to perform a interminable list of daily actions that make our smartphones practically extensions of our own body. Wearables are just going to deepen that relationship with ICT technology.
In most cases, all that engagement leads to action. According to Search Engine Land, 70% of mobile searches produce an action within one hour. Half of them directly lead to sales. Calm down, marketers, I can hear your heart palpitations from here.
Feel the vertigo
Given the facts, it’s quite obvious that mobile technology has opened a wiiiiiiide window of opportunity, not just for business but also for communication, leisure and education.
Now that people are gaining individual access to the interconnected global village, the world is being flat out reshaped.
Picasso said that inspiration does exist, but it has to find you working. Mobile technology’s got all us earthlings in the loop 24/7.
That’s going throw absolutely everything into question, and change most of it.
Are you ready to jump?
