Smartphone Market Exploding Worldwide
Journalists and bloggers say writing the first sentence of an article is the most difficult (next to the title, of course). And that’s certainly the case with smartphone growth. If this piece were a review of the latest mobile device, its features, comparison to other phones and consumer smartphone preferences , I’d whip out the post in 15 minutes and have a long coffee break.
Instead, no coffee break, as I my brain’s neurons stall, trying to say something brilliant about mobile tech and media hysteria.
Media Go Ga-Ga over Consumer Smartphone Market Growth
In the past several years, smartphones have not only become the talk of the town. Nearly everyone on the planet has an opinion about the hottest smartphones. Broadcast and print producers, it seems, schedule at least two minutes per newscast to cover the latest mobile gadget. That includes the Wall Street Journal, which usually scoops everyone on mobile’s rise to fame.
Reviewing my Google mobile tech page a moment ago, I found these smartphone market growth stories from news organizations around the world:
- “Apple Gets in Bed with Business by Playing Hard to Get” (Wired) (Well, now we know Apple’s success strategy.)
- “Telling Steve’s Story” (MSNBC) (Probably should have been “Telling Steve’s Side of the Story”)
- “Sprint Says iPhone Most Network-Efficient Smartphone and ‘Worth Every Penney'” (Apple Insider) (Hey, when you’ve paid Apple $20 million and signed a four-year contract, that better be true.)
- “Microsoft Reveals Futuristic Mobile Devices” (Mobiledia) (Steve Ballmer must hope that Nokia pulls multiple rabbits out of hats.)
- “Ears on with Nokia’s New Monster Headphones” (PC Mag) (The sedate Finnish company clearly heard about Halloween celebrations at Microsoft.)
Smartphone Market Growth with Eric Hansen of SiteSpect
On a more serious note, Eric Hansen joins me in an audio interview to discuss smartphone growth, how it’s changing consumer media preferences and how marketers test desktop and mobile Web preferences when targeting different demographics.
During our conversation, we touch on new vs. veteran smartphone buyers–the mobile geeks and neophytes–and how mobile marketers are targeting diverse new audiences.
In particular Eric mentions the “technology leap” by older users who have purchased iPads as their first mobile devices and services such as Netflix and Amazon.
With Android now dominating smartphone market growth, Eric comments about how handset manufacturers, such as HTC, Samsung and Motorola, have developed dozens of Android models that appeal to different ages, incomes and education levels, changes in television viewing and mobile streaming video.
Finally, we touch on the growth of mobile websites, faster browsers, such as Opera Mini, Firefox and Skyfire.
Indeed, the smartphone market is on fire. And, as Herman Heunis of MXit in South Africa mentioned on MobileBeyond, the mobile handset has become the “remote control of the Universe.”
