10 ways in which mobiles have and will change the world
Over the years, mobile phones have developed from a means of voice communication to the most powerful and the fastest growing means of mass communication. There have been significant innovations and technological advances in this industry. Let’s take a look over a few of them which have changed the world and a few which will change our world still further.
1. Mobiles have evolved as the most powerful mass media
Over the years of evolution, man has come up with various means of mass communication. One of the oldest of these is the news paper, closely followed by cassettes and records, cinema, radio and the T.V. The boom in internet in the 1990s made it the 6th mass media. But the youngest of the mass media is the mobile.
Initially, in the 1990s the mobile was used only as a voice device. However, by the year 2000, mobiles have undergone several major technical evolutions from monochrome to color, to MMS, GPRS, 2.5G and 3G.
In a matter of about 30 years, it has become the fastest growing “trillion dollar industry” of all time. According to world-wide sales figures for 2009, there was sale of about 270 million PCs (including notebooks) and 300 million T.V. sets that year, but a whopping 1.13 billion mobile phones.
There were 4.6 mobile subscribers by the end of 2009, some of them having 2 to 3 subscriptions. Removing these duplications, there were approximately 3.4 billion total mobile phone users!!!
2. Number of users surfing internet via mobiles will increase at a very high rate
It would be surprising to know that 95% of the phones on the planet today have a browser. What does this signify? This means that you can deliver browser-based services and content to 3.4 billion phones. That is nearly 3 times the total number of personal computer users.
Also it is an astonishing fact that in early 2010, Google’s Director of Emerging Platforms confirmed that Google had seen a 500% growth in local mobile search from 2008 to 2010. In the 2nd quarter of 2010 alone and they had experienced a 67% increase in mobile queries confirming the fact that the number 1 method now for accessing local information is via a mobile browser.
3. Mobile websites will take over legacy internet websites
Most of the companies have mobile web sites in addition to the legacy desktop ones. There are approximately 124 billion web sites on the internet. The number of mobile web sites is approximately 10 million. But more and more companies are realizing the advantages of having a mobile web site. Very soon, the trend for having a traditional web site first will be changed by mobiles. Businesses will demand mobile web sites over legacy internet ones.
What is the proof for this?
One word – GOOGLE
In Feb 2010, at the Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed that Google will be adopting the "Mobile First" policy. As quoted by him "The mobile phone is the meeting point. Everything will be in context of mobile phones. Now our programmers are doing the work on mobile first… that is in fact a change."
Mike Steib, Google's Director for Emerging Platforms quotes, "Google has seen a 500% growth in local MOBILE searches from 2008 to 2010 and a 67% increase in the last quarter alone."
Well what does this mean?
This means, that for any new innovation or service or app or product they develop - this is the biggest as well as the most profitable internet company on the planet - they will launch all new introductions to mobile first. Yes… mobile version before a 'legacy PC internet' version.
4. SMSs have changed from being a children’s attraction to a business model
SMSs (texting), as many would say is just for kids. Yes that was when the mobile industry was new. But over time, things have changed drastically. Considering that 3 times the personal computer users use mobile phones, we can safely say that 3 times the users of personal computers have access to messaging. And what all can be done using SMS? Well, today most of the service providers advertise through messaging. User can subscribe to various services, start or stop them, know their account balance, and the list goes on. And this will enable a vast array of new, amazing and popular mobile-only services.
Like say airline check in, which can be done on mobile, and today half of Finnair's passengers on its business routes use mobile phone based check-in (mostly using SMS).
Not only this, but SMSs are being used for payments too, as I’ll discuss shortly.
Not only SMS, but MMS has also changed over time. Don't think of MMS as picture messaging between people - MMS is the world's second-most used digital platform with 1.7 billion active users (second only to SMS, ahead of TV, the internet and personal computers). And MMS is used to deliver news, videos, games, entertainment, advertising etc.
5. Voice services
One may argue that the above mentioned services are for the literate people. For example, what use is SMS based service to a ‘Chai vala’ or a farmer who is illiterate? The mobile industry has an answer for that - the voice services. Mobile voice services can deliver totally new types of 'mobile radio' services - broadcast 'premium voice' services as paid voice services to deliver news, sports scores and live broadcasts. What does a farmer have to do with these? Well in India itself, even in remote places, one might not want to know the latest happenings in the world, but they would definitely love to hear the happenings of a cricket match and how Sachin Tendulkar is performing. Even a farmer enjoys music and entertainment.
Why not use FM radio for this? Because in many parts, FM radio cannot reach to poor villages which are far from the big metropolitan areas. In India alone there are 200 million people living in villages which are beyond FM radio coverage (also beyond TV coverage and have no newspapers or magazines sold in those small villages) but in villages that do have cellular telecoms coverage! In India such 'mobile radio' services like cricket scores and live games, and Bollywood music hits etc. can earn as much money as the total FM radio industry of India. Even for those who have never had ANY media or technology exposure, when they get their first phone, it will be a far bigger change in their lives, than when we upgrade our latest smart phone or sign up to higher speed broadband connection.
Using these voice services, general as well as epidemic related awareness can be spread throughout the masses, from the developed cities to those living in remote villages.
