Many people touted 2010 as the year of the mobile. I have been a naysayer not because I dont want mobile to take off - I REALLY DO. And we are seeing traction coming but the pivotal year will be 2011. Even then the extent of Mobile Commerce will be limited.
A study by Accenture this year shows that the early adopters are still scrounging for deals and coupons in the hope of getting something cheaper or a hidden value. They are prepared to jump through the poor User Experience in order to get to a deal of something. It seems that we have Pavlovian influences at work.
This is clearly illustrated by this chart from eMarketer:
In my view the utility of the various mobile apps for searching and shopping particularly in travel have a long way to go. Hardly any of them offer a compelling reason to use them. Thus the deal or a special offer is still the only way to artificially drive interest to the application in the possibly mistaken belief that this will translate into permanent use and loyalty.
Anyone who is banking on that needs to take caution. Don't believe your own BS.
Where I do believe there is an opportunity - and one my team is working on hard - is a mobile friendly ecommerce suite of services that can leverage the current deal hunters as well as providing tools to make that engagement via the mobile device a sustainable long term service.
Cheers
With thanks to Car Cabinet for their image.
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