You just have to love Comscore and all the other great research groups out there. Its an exciting time to be studying consumer behavior, thats for sure. Things are changing so rapidly and today is a perfect example of that. In just a few short years the use of mobile apps has surpassed that of the web! And mobile web browsing apps aren’t included! Check out this article. And this graphic.
This says so much about us as a civilization. The speed of progress continues to accelerate and if you’re not keeping up, you’re falling further and further behind. The biggest thing we are considering is how the power of marketing can directly influence the behavior of an entire civilization.
Nothing short of billions of dollars have been spent on the promotion of smart phones and mobile apps and people are converting in droves. Last quarter the sale of smartphones in the US reached 50% and it’s still growing.
I called my Dad today to give him the news (He runs an IT support company in NYC) and to make one more push for him to get an iPhone. It’s still a no go. But maybe he has good reason? Is a lot of this wave about hype? My dad says that he just can’t draw a direct ROI from making the upgrade from a flip phone. He calculates that owning a smart phone will cost him 3 times as much as his flip phone with no data plan (He doesn’t even text). Since he’s in the office most of the day and is rarely out and about perhaps he is one of the few who might not be the best smartphone candidate? Anyone want to take a stab at calculating the ROI for a 67 year old man?
On the flip side are those of us who live on the go. People who travel and are out of the office a lot. Or the 75 million direct sellers who are always on the go, or working their direct selling business around their full time job. For someone who needs to make the most of little pockets of time, a smartphone (and the right app) is worth ten times it’s weight in gold.
Where are you on the scale. How do you feel about the effect these devices are having on our lives? Is it kind of like this Windows Mobile commercial?
What about the power of marketing on human behavior? Are we really that pliable?
Share your muses here.
