Franchise Update Magazine Issue III, 2011 | Page 32

Grow Market Lead

Consumer
data
By Tom Epstein

Mobile: Reaping the
Rewards
Don’t get left behind in the smartphone race

E

ach day you are flooded with
articles about using social
media and mobile technology, and how important it is
for your company to keep up. However,
few tell how to leverage this new world
to enhance your overall revenue. FPN’s
Tom Harrington shared some of his insights at Franchise Update’s Franchise
Consumer Marketing Conference in
San Francisco in June. Let’s review some
important stats from that presentation:
• By December 2010 more than 35
percent of all adults in the U.S. were
using mobile devices for Internet access;
that number is predicted to grow to 60
percent by the end of 2012.
• Today more Internet searches are
conducted on a mobile device than on
desktop computers.
• Smartphone usage of both mobile
browsers and mobile apps increased by
more than 110 percent in the past year.
• Of all mobile phones being deployed today, 99 percent can handle
basic data functions such as sending
and receiving text messages.
• And my personal favorite: 95 percent of all text messages are read within
5 minutes of receipt, compared with
17 percent for emails within 24 hours.
The mobilization of your customers
is happening at a record-breaking pace.
More businesses are accepting payments
where the service is rendered by adding
a credit card swipe to a smartphone or
tablet. The app market is going crazy,
with hundreds of new apps launched
every day—apps that can not only help
customers find you, but also facilitate
the order and payment process.

30

Smartphone acceleration

In 1997 it took AOL three years to
reach 3 million users. That same year,
it took Netscape three years to reach
18 million users. In 2010 it took Apple
three years to reach 85 million iPhone
users. The growth curve in technology has sped up by roughly 10 times in
the past decade. In 2012 there will be
more smartphones shipped than desktop and laptop computers. Phones are
rapidly becoming an electronic wallet:
by the end of 2014, 25 percent of all
phones will have an NFC chip embedded to facilitate tap-and-go payments
at the POS.
The smartphone has become the
one piece of equipment you are never
without. If you are like me, you have
at some point left the house and realized you did not have your phone, went
into a panic, and had to turn around
and drive back to the house to pick it
up, no matter how late this was going
to make you.
What can I do to monetize this?

Remember my favorite stat, that 95
percent of all text messages are read
within 5 minutes? Right now you
should be add