Being so focused on online marketing we get caught up in our virtual world that we often get boxed in by the bits of information streaming across the world wide web.
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Think about it! This is a staggering number! Imagine with just over 5 percent of total sales being made online it makes one think of all the opportunities that still lie ahead for us.
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This makes finding ways to take digital marketing mobile an incredibly important and the conduit to make this happen is the Smartphone. The traditional PC market of notebooks and desk-based units is expected to decline 7.6 percent in 2013 (see Table 1). This is not a temporary trend induced by a more austere economic environment; it is a reflection of a long-term change in user behavior.
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Beginning in 2013, ultramobiles will help offset this decline, so that sales of traditional PCs and ultramobiles combined show a 3.5 percent decline in 2013.
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Here are some statistics that that makes the case for the urgency to develop the technology to make this a reality.
Worldwide Devices Shipments by Segment (Thousands of Units)
Device Type
2012
2013
2014
2017
PC (Desk-Based and Notebook)
341,263
315,229
302,315
271,612
Ultramobile
9,822
23,592
38,687
96,350
Tablet
116,113
197,202
265,731
467,951
Mobile Phone
1,746,176
1,875,774
1,949,722
2,128,871
Total
2,213,373
2,411,796
2,556,455
2,964,783
Source: Gartner (April 2013)
Tablets are seeing aggressive price erosion and Smartphones are also becoming more affordable, driving adoption in emerging markets and the prepay segment in mature markets. Of the 1.875 billion mobile phones to be sold in 2013, 1 billion units will be smartphones, compared with 675 million units in 2012.
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It is said the the trend towards smartphones and tablets will have much wider implications than hardware displacement. Software and chipset architecture are also impacted by this shift as consumers embrace apps and personal cloud.
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As it all stands today mobile provides us with the means and the greatest opportunities and it will be interesting to see how we develop the ways and how this will all unfold in 2014 and the coming years.