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Mobile shopping stampede begins

by SoftTalk Mobile
Wednesday, November 30th 2011 at 1:19PM

All the research is pointing at boom times for shopping by phone, reflects Softtalkmobile.

A revealing piece of research published last week by Motricity, a US mobile marketing company, was eye opening. It put down a significant marker in the mobile shopping industry by revealing that more people are buying things via their mobile devices than ever before. To be precise 70 per cent of shoppers are making more purchases in 2011 than 2010.

Hardly surprising with smartphones, tablets and utrabooks becoming more commonplace.

But I wanted to flag this up because Motricity was initially formed in 2001 when its mission was to design integrated mobile content for mobiles such as the classic Nokia 3310 and personal digital assistants like the Palm Pilot.

In 2001 this vision was heady futuristic stuff. So it’s almost ironic to hear Motricity assert that mobile commerce is set to redefine boundaries just like online shopping did when it really began to take root in 2001.

These days Motrocity ranks Coca Cola, Canal+ and CNN among its mobile advertising clients, which says it all.

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Of course, real shopping is always going to be around – online shopping can’t replace the pleasure of prodding that chicken or throwing on those slinky slingbacks.

Bur habits are changing. Motricity’s research said the most expensive item bought on a smartphone or tablet cost $274 (€204) on average. Interestingly, those in the 24-44 age group are nearly twice as likely to feel that shopping from a mobile device is more convenient than those aged 18-24.

For those under 30, smartphones have eclipsed the need for a computer, and more than half saying they would prefer to give up their computer for six months than their smartphone.

However, there are brakes on mobile shopping and unsurprisingly. Security is a top barrier among 32 per cent of respondents, and slow or unreliable internet connections cited by 31 per cent of respondents.

There’s a lot of research that shows online shopping is booming and 2012 is set to be the biggest year yet. Every year it’s the same story, which just shows how the pace of growth is relentless.

And now we can throw mobile shopping into the mix.

At Softtalkmobile we reckon that if someone can come up with an app that collates money-saving offers from a variety of stores and offer price comparisons they could be onto a winner.

For sure, behind the scenes logistics to gather this information could be nightmarish but worth the effort.

Next week promises to be action packed for developers looking to network, form new partnerships, and get some great ideas. On Tuesday 6 December, starting at 6.30pm, there’s a free developer meetup in Manchester, with free food and drink, courtesy of Intel.

The event takes place at The Seven Oaks, 5 Nicholas Street, Manchester, M1 4HL. You can register for your place here.

On Wednesday 7 December at 10.30am, there’s also a free webinar that will show you how you can make money selling HTML5 apps in the Intel AppUp center.

You can learn about the HTML5 Encapsulator that makes it easy to turn your HTML5 into an installable app that works offline.

There's also an opportunity to find out how to sell your HTML5 app in the many stores powered by the Intel AppUp center. Places are limited, so if you’re interested, reserve your webinar place here.

* This blog post is written by Softtalkmobile, and is sponsored by the Intel AppUp developer program, a single channel for distributing apps to multiple devices, multiple operating systems, and multiple app stores.

Tags: intel , Intel Developer Blog