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!
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Businesses often struggle to decide which domain to use. When it comes to purchasing a domain name, you have plenty of extensions to choose from, ranging from .com and .net, to .me, and even .mobi. But which one should you pick?
I've been writing about how the next evolution of the Internet might just be an advertising revolution, and how corporate IT can stay involved as the enablers and providers of the technologies that make this possible.
In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M.
The smartphone market reached a significant milestone, a breakthrough that may cause vendors to celebrate but could strain the capabilities of IT service desks.
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.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE