In the last couple of days I upgraded my devices and now jumped to 6 devices. Half of them are mobile devices and most of my online purchases are done through them... It has to do with having accounts setup and for amazon and others to have created apps with great UIs.
I think you are right, WaqasAltaf. More people are choosing the mobile devices as an alternative to internet use. To those who are not invested in the current system, it makes a viable choice.
I think the pricing and alternatives with mobile internet access are brilliant strategies that will continue to drive the use and markets. I truly think that has greatly contributed to the now existing revolution.
Although analysts see the future of desktops and laptops with pessimism but the manufacturers can keep on making sales until the security aspect of mobile internet transactions gets resolved. And I believe it will be a long journey before those doubts are wiped off.
I believe mobile devices/smartphones are much cheaper than the laptops and the desktops and for users who want to purchase computers specifically for internet usage, they find the smartphones more attractive. It may be one of the major reasons why many users who have never used internet on desktop/laptop before, start of their internet journey through the smartphone.
Certainly the mobile market has grown exponentially this year. In the times to come the mobile market will become more penetrated and new offerings will be on the market.
One welcoming trend I've seen lately is that eTail stores are now letting me "log in with Facebook", the way that many blogs are allowing universal identity with systems like Facebook, Twitter, Disqus, LiveFyre, Yahoo.
The main thing that keeps me coming back to Amazon is that I have to sit and create a login for every eTail site I visit. Yet I see more selection and better prices at vendors who specialize in a particular product line. Letting me Login with Facebook takes away one barrier.
The second barrier would be trust. Can I trust these guys not to raid my credit card, or simply steal my email address and give it to spammers? In the same way that some of my credit cards will back up purchases and guarantee travel and even give me collision coverage for rental cars, I would love it if one of these identity services would go all the way and allow me to sign in, and be my financial umbrella for shopping at individual sites. They essentially would be a type of insurance against fraud, just like with a plastic credit card and bricks and mortar stores.
@JFlaherty: I agree. The composition of the goods and services within the online sales numbers is very important. Looking at it from the other side, if the sales of digital goods was a major proportion of online sales then the brick and mortar stores out there need not worry because they're not directly competing with digital goods.
@Bolingbroke: Ten percent may be a small portion but it must be fairly huge in terms of volume. Also, you need to look at the growth rate rather than the percentage itself. The significant growth should alarm the companies out there and help them in making better strategies for next year.
"Mobile internet came in to the frame long time back."
You are correct. But there has been a tremendous improvement in the mobile internet industry this year. Mobile sales and mobile ads have grown this year than what it used to be in previous years due to tablets and advanced smartphones market penetration.
. . . the shift is actually happening faster than many of the projections indicate.
I've been in the mobile business since the mid 90's and neither "revolution" nor "faster" are words I'd use to describe what's happening in mobile commerce. Similar growth indicators and predictions have been published since 2002 then invariably missed.
Until recently, the industry - especially in the US – has moved according to the impossibly slow pace mandated by the typically risk averse, utility-centric network carriers. The competition between the two U.S. network standards – CDMA and GSM -and the lack of infrastructure build-out has also restrained growth. Add to that the fact that the mobile phone manufacturers let themselves be held hostage to the carriers' whims, delaying for years any real ramp up to smartphones. It took two companies from the outside, Apple and Google, to shake things and get the speed up to "faster." Hallelujah!
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Recently, the Obama administration has been of two minds where privacy rights are concerned. On one hand, you have an administration that vowed to veto CISPA and mandated open data for government websites. On the other hand, you have an increasingly out-of-control Department of Justice on a fishing expedition at AP and demanding legislation to let the FBI wiretap private, encrypted communications and levy fines if a company fails to comply.
The apartment and house sharing service, Airbnb, now requires members to verify their identities by demonstrating a presence on the web, and by either scanning a government ID or entering detailed personal details. Other enterprises should take a close look at Airbnb's verification policies.
Facebook advertising is a lightning rod. It seems neither brands nor consumers are 100 percent happy about the social media site's policies, placement, or procedures. But the real controversy about Facebook ads and promotions is over whether they work.
By now, you've most likely heard about the 3D-printed gun that Texas-based Defense Distributed demonstrated last week. But we haven't heard the last about the censorship war that began soon afterward.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Subsidized handsets, rather than locked handsets, should be the focus of regulators. We're not getting good deals, not fostering innovation, and weakening our power as buyers.
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