Mobile Future

The future will be mobile future. If you take al look at basic statistics you see Mobile will take over in 2014 (which is the near future), which means companies have to be ready to participate in this flat mobile world.

Recent numbers show how mobile is growing fast and strong. Check my post on Mobile is near and the most recent numbers on mobile use in the US, EU and Japan.

After the social media revolution, it’s time for the mobile revolution, where reality will be augmented!

On this page you can read general impacts of mobile society. I’ve opened up a specific page on re-thinking retail in the mobile era, to give more insights on how mobile will affect the retail experience of shops, but you can also read on how brands can/must take action on these new mobile and social opportunities.

Already it’s important to get things going, because a mobile future means:

1. mobile payments – easy available and accessable, and probably the end of money as we know it.
   There are different ways to pay in the mobile world which are already available:
   – Square is a cube-like plug-in that works with your iPhone, iPad or Android phone, to read credit cards and allows merchants to accept mobile payments. You can track sales, tips, tax, payment locations and your customers from one place. There are no contracts or monthly minimums, and the card reader and setup are free. There is, however, a limit of $1,000 deposit per week into your bank account, with the remainder deposited in 30 days.
   – PAYware Mobile is an app, card reader and payment gateway from Verifone that allows the user to accept and process credit cards using an iPhone 3G/3GS. Manual card entry only is supported on the iPhone 4, iPad and iPod touch. It uses VeriFone’s PAYware connect payment gateway to process payments. The encryption sleeve costs $149 and the transaction fees vary by merchant account.
   – GoPayment is a service provided via a partnership between Intuit and Mophie to enable secure credit card processing on your iPhone (3G/3GS). You can process any credit card either directly or by swiping it with the Mophie credit card reader. Receipts are either e-mailed or texted to your customers. The card reader costs $179.95 with a monthly service fee of $12.95. There are no setup fees or monthly minimums.

   Off Course Apps will play an important rol in the payment section. The following article gives an overview on what this means.

2. location – look how Gowalla and Foursquare shaped 2010….and what location services can be used for business wise:
   Location-based services will prove a powerful, relevant way to create a location-based loyalty program, offer specials and perks, and leverage verified checking to attract new customers. Businesses will be able to offer real measurable rewards (and not just “fun”) for consumers, pushing the trend into the mainstream.
3. Mobile Web – since mobile devices will become the standard – it’s time to keep a mobile version of your website!
   It even can be easy to create a mobile version of your desktop website using the next tools:
   – Mobify offers the ability to optimize and design your mobile site for thousands of mobile devices. It allows extensive customization and a plugin that automatically redirects visitors to the mobile version when using their phones to reach your site. There is a free version that you can use to get up and running quickly or switch to the pro plan, which offers custom branding, analytics, ad integration and more.
   – Instant Mobilizer is an automated tool from dotMobi that takes any existing desktop website and transforms it into an enhanced mobile site. It resizes images, reformats text and inserts other mobile-friendly features to ensure your website works on any phone. You have to register your .mobi domain with one of their registrar partners, and Instant Mobilizer will take care of the rest.

 And this is only the beginning. Marie Meekers sees 10 future trends for the mobile society in the near future.

Sources:

Open Forum – http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/4-small-business-mobile-predictions-for-2011-grace-smith
Business insider – www.businessinsider.com
Financieel Economische tijd  – www.tijd.be
PSFK – www.PSFK.Com
Gigaom – www.gigaom.com