Mobile Phone Usage and Growth

Understanding how to conduct business in the mobile world is a crucial part of running a successful business these days.  Your clients have increased expectations for you and it’s your job to utilize the modern tools around you to meet their needs.  Using a service such as GigaBook can help you meet the needs of not only your clients but also the needs of you and your service providers.

Cell phone ownership among adults has exceeded 90%–cell phones are being used by 91% of adults. It’s the most quickly-adopted consumer technology in the history of the world. While most are quickly embracing the use of cell phones, there are some groups who are less enthusiastic about it: age group 65 and older, those who did not attend college, those living in households earning less than $30,000 and those in rural areas.

A little history of the cell phone: the first handheld cellphone was a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, purchased for nearly $4,000 on March 13, 1984. It was pretty much considered a gimmick, given that it measured 13 x 1.75 x 3.5 inches and weighed close to two pounds. Its nickname was “The Brick” with a battery life of a half hour. Since the cost was nearly $4,000 it was considered a rich man’s toy. With payphones located at every street corner and banks of them in buildings, and only cost a dime to use, the portable phone sales were not great. When all was said and done, and two cordless ‘talk-to-each-other’ phones were introduced in 1973, Motorola had spent $100 million to develop the phones, not knowing if anyone would ever want one.

Due to the high cost of purchasing a phone, they were designed for businesses, which were quickly adopted for the use in cars.   The target market of buyers were entrepreneurs, doctors, real estate agents, construction company owners and large company executives. The first year netted 12,000 cellular phone sold, which was more than anyone expected.

The perfection of cellular technology had one of the longest gestation periods in tech history. It started in 1947 with the idea of adjoining antenna sites and became closer to reality in the mid-1960s. In the early 1980s the FCC gave carriers the final cellular development go-ahead.

Fast forward to the smartphone. 56% of American adults have smart phones. In the youth ages 12-17, 78% have cell phones—37% of those are smart phones.

People are using their cell phones for different purposes than the way they used their landline phones—35% of cell owners avidly use texting.

In June 2012 it was reported that 35.8% of the American homes have become cell only and another 15.9% of people received all or almost all of their calls wirelessly, even though they still have their landlines. Mobile internet has overtaken desktop usage.

Currently 4.3 billion people worldwide use mobile phones, and it’s projected that number will increase to 5.1 billion in the next four years. The global smartphone audience has grown from 1 billion to over 1.75 billion in the last two years.

The downside of cellphone usage—26% of the nation’s car accidents are caused from distracted drives talking on their phones. While 5% of the cellphone-related crashes occur because the driver is texting, the majority of accidents involve drivers distracted while talking on their phones, whether hands-free devices are being used or not.

 

Mobile growth trends–the time it took to reach 50 million people:

Radio – 38 years

TV – 13 years

Internet – 4 years

Facebook – 3.5 years

Draw Something App – 50 days

 

Other Important Facts About Mobile Device Usage

The average age for a person’s first cell phone is 13.
Adults owning a tablet device – 31%
People using mobile device to browse for a product after seeing it advertised – 41%
Shoppers comparing in-store prices to online prices while shopping – 53%
American not getting news on a combination of at least two devices – 23%

Because mobile internet usage is increasing steadily, it’s extremely important that websites are mobile-friendly. Enter responsive web design which means a website that has been constructed so that all of the content, images and structure of the site remains the same on any device. It gives users a better experience—it’s easier and more convenient for users to read and navigate a website.

Some findings: when someone arrives on your mobile website and is frustrated or doesn’t see the content they are searching for immediately, there’s a 60% chance they’ll leave and head to another website. If it’s been a positive experience, that individual will be 67% more likely to buy a product or use the service. In fact, 85% of adults believe that a mobile site must be as good, if not better than, a desktop site.