Well the paint on the new site isn't even dry and we're away to the races. Mobile is on the elbow of the exponential curve. If you're a fan of the Law of Accelerating Returns (thanks Ray Kurzweil) then these are indeed very exciting times and busy ones for mobile developers. 

First some numbers... There are 4 billion mobile phones in the world at last estimate. 3 billion are SMS enabled and fully 1 billion are smart devices, capable of doing what the average desktop was capable of a few short years ago. The average North American spends more than 2 1/2 hours using their mobile device every day. That's more time than they spend doing just about anything else other than sleeping. Half of all web searches are done on a mobile device and in two short years mobile web access will surpass the desktop.  What are we doing on our phones? Communicating and consuming data. 90% of people use their smartphones to access social media. Each day there are more than 200 million YouTube views on mobile devices. These are huge numbers that prove mobile is exploding now.

So what does this future look like. A shout out to the folks at Corning who have done an excellent job envisioning a day in the life for us. Check out the video "A Day Made of Glass" (after you finish reading my post, please). From the moment you wake up you are moving and your data move with you. (Come on, admit it. The first thing most of us do before we even get out of bed is check our phones. Weather, email, Facebook, quick game of Angry Birds to pump the adrenaline. Okay maybe I'm alone there but I don't think so.) 


In the Corning video we see our idilic future. It looks fantastic, you say. Great! So ask yourself. Where I work, what is our mobile strategy? Is our data available anywhere, anytime? Are we reaching our customers and talking with our vendors anywhere, anytime? Are we doing business anywhere, anytime like in the video? If the answer is, we're not, we open at 9 and close at 5, then you're not maximizing your business potential. I'm not talking about working 60 hour weeks. I'm talking about working on your terms. When and where you want. If you decide to work 60 hours that's your choice. But at least work when and where you want. Your family and friends will thank you.

More and more employees are seeking greater flexibility. They don't want to be chained to their desks and when they do have that stroke of genius they want to be able to act on it without having to sit down at the PC or worse still truck into the office because that crucial file is on that damned office server. They want to grab their phone or tablet and sieze the moment and move on with their day.

Start now! Be the catalyst for changing the way your company does business. The Law of Accelerating Returns will thank you and so will your boss.

If you are in sales or marketing look at your social mobile strategy. Is it integrated? Does it leverage location services, QR codes, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, SMS??? If not or only a tiny bit then you have an opportunity to improve things. To reach more people, to engage folks directly and frequently. To build more and stronger trusted relationships.

If you are in production, look at your methodology. Are you as effective as you could be? Do your vendors know what you need when you need it? Are you able to access information real time so you can make informed decisions that are the difference between a quality product or service and a mistake? If not then look to enable mobile access to mission critical information and your mistakes will be fewer. Customers love quality. 

If you are in administration look at your processes. Are they efficient? Are there bottlenecks because someone isn't attending to an inbox or isn't logging in to review and approve something. Again, opportunity to improve. Everyone will thank you when the process runs more smoothly. Life will be better.

At Esyngen Interactive we do mobile. We make mobile apps, and enable mobile web access. The kind of mobile that pays for itself through reduced costs, increased sales and greater satisfaction. Contact us, we go anywhere, anytime.

Graham Newbigging
graham@esyngen.com
(905) 582-6414
twitter.com/esyngen