Change is accelerating all the time but no media channel is seeing a faster pace of change than the mobile media channel. It is hard to believe that it was only 1995 when Netscape went public with 75% of all internet users which were at that time based mainly in the United States. However, with the advent of the Mobile Internet more people globally are accessing the internet via mobile phone. This trend will continue and by 2014 the mobile internet will surpass desktop internet access. Growth has been strong, up 13% year after year since 2009. 48% of the worlds’ internet users are in five countries China, United States, India, Brazil and Russia. China has surpassed the United States in internet usage.  Researchers say internet adoption via mobile phone is ramping fast because of the proliferation of smart phones lead by the Apple iPhone.

According to Forrester’s 2007 Study on E-Commerce penetration online in the hot categories including: computer products, event tickets, books, music videos, and gift cards 20% of overall sales came from the internet.  In the toy, video game, baby product, consumer electronics, office supply, flowers and cards, jewelry, apparel, footwear, and movie tickets categories online sales represented 10-20% of overall revenues.  The adoption to mobile shopping is going to be a lot faster.The mobile internet is expected to lead online commerce in a much faster time frame – especially if you consider Rakuten in Japan as the example.

Each major computing cycle stage has seen ten times the adoption rate by users than the earlier stage. Mainframes (1960s) were replaced by Mini Computers in the (1970s), followed by personal computing in the (1980s) to desktop and internet computing in the (1990s). We are now in the mobile internet computing age (2000) – a time of unprecedented change and over ten times adoption rates.

Six trends are emerging at once which is further accelerating the development of the mobile web and adoption of mobile marketing

1. 3G – hit 20% penetration worldwide in 2010 and is now considered mainstream

2. Social Networking– the mobile phone allows content creation right from the handset because it can take photos and videos and these pieces of media can be posted immediately. Some brands have over 2 million Facebook fans that are starting to communicate via mobile messaging

3. Video – according to Cisco traffic will grow over mobile networks due to the rise and demand for mobile video streaming

4. VoIP / Google Voice – has become extremely popular amongst users. If Skype was a carrier (which it is not) it would be the largest in the world.

5.  Impressive mobile devices – iPhone and Android are leading the pack in terms of innovation but others are developing some interesting personal computing devices

6. Emergence of Location-based mobile services – Gilt, mobile coupons, push messages (i.e.txt from eBay letting you know where your bids are at), provide immediate gratification to on the go consumers.  While mobile app development has mainly been in the gaming area as the industry emerges we will see more mobile apps focused on productivity and business applications.

Increasingly mobile phone usage is becoming more about Data than voice.  A couple of years ago a typical mobile user spent 70% of their time on voice while today less than 40%.

North America is 5 to 10 years behind Japan in revenue through the mobile marketing. This is largely due to the monopolistic hold the carriers had. With change and more competition from overseas coming in we can expect to see a quickening to catch up to the rest of the world.