2011 - the year of the mobile and bright yellow pandas!

Did you know there are more mobile devices in the world than PC’s? I’m sure you did!

Yep, 2011 will be the year of mobile and location services and apps and HTML 5 and bright yellow pandas…I guess you’ve heard most of this before (maybe not the panda part though!) Every year, the experts try to predict the big trends and they rarely seem to get it wrong - they just happen to be a year or so out sometimes! That statement would certainly be true with their mobile predictions anyway, as 09 and 10 were both going to be the year of mobile, when, in fact they nearly were. At least, that’s my opinion.

I do agree with them this year though! 2011 does seem to be the year that things are really going to take off. The big brands are on-board already and the SME brands are realising they need to do something for the mobile customer - they just need some help on what that might be.

I believe you can thank Apple for the massive drive forward in mobile absorption in 10 and 11. The iPhone certainly kick-started a slow market and added real ingenuity and style. The iPad added to the momentum and with Google (Android) and Microsoft (Windows 7 mobile) biting away at Apple’s heels with some classy stuff, the train has well and truly left the station and it’s getting faster and faster in 2011.

Add to that, the fact that Nokia has just thrown it’s full support behind Windows 7 mobile, and then there is the ever growing glut of iPod ‘wannabees’ (and possibly a real contender in there as well) and you don’t have to look hard to see a rapidly increasing market and opportunity.
Don’t just take our word for it - look at these figures from NMA.

17 million people accessing news
via mobile in Aug 2010

37% of UK population accessing news
via mobile in 2010, note the UK leading this.

Then take a look at this smartphone market data.
It’s highly likely that it contains some of your target market.

So what does that mean for Idealogy? Well we completed our first Mobile site last year, working alongside our partner Rocktime - you can see it here http://m.fitnessfirst.co.uk/. We were also working on a few more in late 2010/ early 2011 and the enquiries are growing as our customers see increased demands from their target markets. And it’s not just mobile sites. You can throw mobile apps into the equation. We’ve completed a couple of our own apps and we’re working on another for a client. Take-up and demand is somewhat slower for these but that could be down to the millions that already exist. So, finding a good app idea can prove tricky alongside ROI strategy - but more on that in another posting.

For now though, I think 2011 will prove to be the year of mobile. We’ll see many more mobile devices appear and, as the cost to develop mobile sites falls, and consumers increasingly demand tailored mobile content to fit with their ever mobile lives, Idealogy intends to be at the forefront of the technological changes and ready to help clients make the most of these opportunities.

Now before I end you might be asking what’s the bright yellow panda then? Shall I leave you wondering about this great piece of new technology that you’ve never heard of, yep I think I will.

No Panda’s, yellow or otherwise, were hurt in the writing of this blog.

Posted by Simon Johnson
Credit to NMA for their figures.