Mobile: The Trend for 2017 You Shouldn’t Ignore

By the end of this year, Statista predicts that around 4.75 billion people will be using a smartphone. The forms of smartphone use have exceeded expectations and are being fueled by innovations and advances in video and mobile application development. Smartphones are being used for commonplace habits like communication and video viewing to more unconventional yet popular activities like shopping, reservations, acquisition of services, and so on.

Let’s take a look at the major and growing trends in mobile for 2017.

Google Confirmed the Trend

We are all, hopefully, familiar with Mobilegeddon and the follow-ups that were release from 2015 to 2017, which pushed or encouraged the web to become more “mobile friendly”. For those still unfamiliar with Mobilegeddon, Google started to reward those who were mobile friendly, or in other words, had the capacity to load all the details and contents of their web page in mobile, including buttons and interactive features, without having to zoom or scroll.  For those still uncertain about their mobile friendliness, take a look at the Google mobile-friendly tool and explore Google’s mobile guidelines. For the companies looking to optimize their performance, Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an essential tool, which will enable faster mobile page load time.

Mobile Commerce

By 2020, e-commerce is expected to project a $250 billion market, with a significant number of e-commerce purchases coming through mobile. It is also becoming clear that most brands have surpassed merely developing mobile friendly e-commerce shops, but rather are approaching mobile application development companies for creative solutions for the best possible mobile experience. These solutions include options that work on a variety of screen sizes, technical readouts, operating systems, to personalized customer interactions and solutions, which abandon the one-size-fits-all technique and embrace applications that track customers’ behaviors and purchasing habits. Some retailers and brands are also embracing hybrid solutions (i.e. online one-touch purchase and real-world pickup; online reservations and pre-orders) to increase sales and traffic while ensuring that customers do not have to endure long lines and large crowds.

Other features becoming popular include:

• rapid order placement solutions
• Digital magazine purchase button and solutions
• Loyalty card mobile scanners
• Etc.

Mobile Videos

It is evident that videos are becoming the primary online content mean, and predictions indicate that spending on digital video ads will increase by double-digits every year through 2020. Moreover, 92% of those mobile video viewers have the habit of sharing videos with others through various social platforms. The popularity of mobile video is primarily due to advances in video and mobile application development, and the need for videos is felt by almost all brands utilizing the web. Those who will lag behind this trend may feel the consequence more severely than previously thought.

Mobile Voice Search

According to Search Engine Land, 20% of searches in Google’s mobile app and on Android devices are done through voice commands, this does not take into consideration Amazon’s Echo Google Home, Siri or Cortana. The mobile voice trend is predicted to persist and evolve into a larger part of a mobile strategy in the upcoming years, becoming a preferred method for consumers and users. It is thus obvious that brands need to begin considering and optimizing their content for voice search, which may also entail mobile application development that is able to answer questions by customers. Starbucks has already begun embracing this mobile trend with their voice ordering addition on their mobile app.

The biggest trend in 2017 is mobile. Brands that take advantage of mobile application development that is creative and provides the best possible experience for their users and customers will surely see a competitive edge. Therefore, we can concur that mobile uprising is one trend brands cannot afford to overlook.