2016 Mid Year State of the Mobile Industry

State
of
the
Mobile
Industry
2016
Mid-‐Year
Report

It is amazing when you stop and think about what the last nine years have brought us since the
iPhone was first introduced. The first advertisement for the iPhone aired on February 25, 2007 during
the Academy Awards and released four months later. The smartphone craze took hold of us all. Now,
78% of global consumers have smartphones (Deloitte, “2016 Global Mobile Consumer Trends). India
has reached 1 billion mobile subscriptions (2015, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). 72% of 11-‐
12 year olds in South Korea own a smartphone (2016 “Computer in Human Behavior”). Although
Australia’s mCommerce growing nearly three times the speed of online, 4 billion people across the
globe still don’t have access to the Internet. This is most evident in countries with low GDP in Africa
where, for example, only 5% of Uganda’s population have smartphones.
Like any game-‐changing technology that alters human behavior, disruption crashes across every
industry. The music industry has been turned on its ear by companies like Pandora, Spotify, Amazon
and Apple. Spotify now has 30 million subscribers and Apple has between 11 and 15 million
depending on the sources you read. Spotify belongs to the Unicorn group. Unicorns are thought to be
mythical private companies that have ascended to $1 billion evaluation or more.
The sharing economy has also gained ground and disrupted status quo. 70% of consumers have used
companies like Lyft, Airbnb and Uber. Speaking of sharing, a mom who used her smartphone to
capture and post a video to Facebook Live as she tried on a Chewbacca mask from Kohl’s amassed
over 153 million views.
Introduction
$3.1TIn
revenue
generated
by
mobile
industry
in
2015
$5.1B2016
sales
generated
by
VR

(estimated)

We’ve seen the stats that talking on the phone is rated as an infrequent activity. That’s
changing. Not because we’re making more phone calls, but because four in ten
smartphone owners regularly use voice recognition. We convert voice to text, ask Siri,
Cortana or Google Now questions or control our phones with our voice. These
technologies are getting smarter and better at understanding us. Apple and Microsoft
have opened up their voice recognition to developers. Companies are popping up like
viv.ai, made up of Siri developers, who plan to take building a simple intelligence for
everything to the next level.
Currently 1/3 of the top 100 retailers utilize beacons. This number is set to grow to
85% by year’s end. Virtual Reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are knocking on the
door of main stream. People have watched 1 million hours of VR content on Samsung
Gear devices according to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Meanwhile, Google sold 5
million Google cardboard VR headsets.
That’s several numbers to process. While on their own, they make us think, but the
decisions drawn from them and resulting actions are what’s most important. We have
entered the time period where we have to assume that everyone is a mobile user. In
some form or fashion, whether it’s the device or indirectly because of the inception of
the device, mobile drives commerce and innovation.
Introduction
30%Of
Mobile
World
Congress
attendees

booked
travel
using
AirBnB

1.4B smartphones were sold in 2015 led by Samsung, Apple and Huawei. A big number that isn’t
necessarily a good number. Globally, Apple sales flatlined and were down in Q1 2016 by 16%. Android
sales increased growing Android’s market share to nearly 6 times that of iOS.
Android developer woes continue as the fragmentation increases. iOS enjoys the fact that they have
over 90% of phones on the same version and 98% distributed over two versions. Android is forced to
deal with over 16 different versions and none over 20%. It only took 7 months for 84% of iOS users to
upgrade to iOS 9. Meanwhile Android only converted 7.5% of users to Android 6 in 6 months.
Don’t rest your Android OS hopes on new smartphones to increase the number of phones with the
same version. Only 48% of consumers plan to buy a new smartphone this year according to
Accenture, down 6 points from last year. More and more users are waiting to replace their phones
until it dies.
Devices
Top
Smartphone
Platforms
3
Month
Avg.
Ending
Feb.
2016
vs.
3
Month
Avg.
Ending
Nov.
2015
Total
U.S.
Smartphone
Subscribers
Age
13+
Source:
comScore
MobiLens
Share
(%)
of
Smartphone
Subscribers
Nov-‐15 Feb-‐16 Point
Change
Total
Smartphone
Subscribers 100.0% 100.0% N/A
Android
53.1%
52.7%
-‐0.4

Apple
43.1%
43.9%
0.8

Microsoft
2.8%
2.5%
-‐0.3

BlackBerry
1.0%
0.8%
-‐0.2

Male
Female
Gender
Android
iOS
OS
More
than
once
a
year
Once
per
year
Once
every
2
years
Once
every
3
years
Less
than
once
every
3
years
Frequency
US
smartphone
owners

purchase
a
new
smartphone

Americans are tethered to their phones. 67% of Americans never try to unplug from technology. They always have
their smartphone, tablet or laptop with them. Half of teens admit to being addicted to their phones. According to
Google’s Micromoments, 87% of people always have their smartphone at their side, 68% check their phone within
15 minutes of waking up, check their phones 150x a day and use mobile more than desktop to access the Internet.
The same can be said for media access.
Users spend 3 hours a day on our mobile devices which is 17% more than desktop. Luckily, global mobile network
connection speeds grew 20% in 2015 to help keep up with the high demand from users. “Help” because
smartphone usage grew43%, app usage grew58% and time spent on smartphones grew117% in the US in 2015.
Smartphone owners in the US eat through an average of 2.5GB per month. Global data traffic grew 74% to reach
3.7 exabytes per month by the end of 2015, that’s 3.7B gigabytes. The US consumed 9.6B gigabytes for the entire
year, up 300% from 2013. One-‐third of all North American web traffic now comes from mobile devices. For 60% of
smartphone users, their smartphone is their primary Internet source. For a more global perspective, mobile has
given access to 2.5B people in developing countries. This accounts for about 40% of the developing world’s
population. The GSMA predicts that number will be 3.8B in 2020 (nearly 60% of the population).
These numbers are nice but what does it translate to? Smartphones and tablets together account for 70% of
brand’s digital engagement time according to comScore. 94% of smartphone owners use the device to search for
local business information. 84% of smartphone shoppers use their phone in the store. Smartphone research is an
important part of the experience. Online pre-‐purchase researching (webrooming) is predicted to drive $1.8T in
retail sales in 2017. Mobile is an important part of this.
Consumers want a seamless experience across all devices. Unfortunately, about half of consumers say the
integration between brick-‐and-‐mortar, online and mobile needs improvement. An excellent mobile experience is
imperative for businesses trying to attract Millennials.
Mobile
User
Behaviors
48%
33%
25%
Initial
Mobile
Search
Search
Engine Branded
Website
Branded
App
8BNumber
of
time

smartphones
are
checked
in

the
US
every
day

Apple users spent $1.1 billion on apps and in-‐app purchases over Christmas and New Year making this
2015-‐2016 holiday season the biggest ever for the Apple App Store. When you stop to consider the
app ecosystem was worth $0 before 2008, it’s mind-‐boggling to think the ecosystem is predicted to be
$101B by 2020. Marketers take note, mobile is 70% of consumers’ interactions with a brand according
to Adobe DigitalIndex.
Americans spend over 3 hours/day on mobile. With nine out of every ten minutes spent in apps, app’s
importance cannot be understated. Don’t expect your users to stay long though. 73% of app sessions
are 1 minute or less with an average of 72 seconds per session. Despite users visiting 25 apps per
month, 80% of the time is spent on their top three apps. Ten or fewer apps are opened per day by
92% of smartphone owners. Messaging and social consume 34% of the time spent on mobile with
entertainment and gaming coming in at 17% and 15%, respectively.
iOS and Android won the mobile OS wars long ago with a 98% death grip on smartphones. While
Google apps enjoy faster growth, Apple is where the money is. The majority of the 638B apps
downloaded from 2008-‐2013 belongs to Google but the lion share of the $99B in revenue belongs to
Apple. Apple has made great strides to improve their app approval process by reducing the time from
8.6 days one year ago to 1.6 days today. It’s important to make the 5.7M app developers around the
world happy.
These numbers sound great but the usage, or lack thereof, as time goes by can be disheartening (5%
within 30 days). What steps can be taken to improve it? Minimize the information required. 60% of
users decide not to download or continue usage after realizing how much information they are
required to share. 43% will uninstall for the same reason. Make sure you have a quality app. 96% of
users will install a 4-‐star app, 50% will download a 3-‐star app, but only 15% will download a 2-‐star
app.
Apps
62%
18%
11%
6% 3%
Reasons
people
looked
at
or
picked

up
their
phones
Notifications Killing
time
Looking
for
something Accident
Other
1.62BApp
downloads
estimated

for
2016-‐2020

Onboarding communication is important. Onboarding with push and another channel like email or
SMS during the first week of installation will increase the customer retention 130% over 2 months.
Multiple channels are vital since 30% disable all mobile push notifications. If you’re lucky enough to
rank as one of the user’s favorite apps, 50% will opt-‐in to receiving push messages.
Optimize your push messages. Twenty-‐four characters or less increases conversion rates and adding
an image increases the likelihood the customer will respond to a call-‐to-‐action (CTA) by 57%.
Personalized message sent to the app increases conversion by 27% and personalized message delivery
times (when they are usually engaged with the app) drives up conversions by 38%.
You’ve paid 40% more for an install on Android than you did last year. You have added 34% of users
based on peer reviews. You’ve kept them through the first week. Now what? Keep up the
communications. Find ways to keep the users engaged. 90% of users who engage with an app on a
weekly basis for the first month of install will continue to use the app. By this time, a habit has formed
and you have them hooked.
Apps can be a difficult and costly business. User expectations are high. If the app runs slow, 48% of
the users will uninstall. 72% of users will uninstall apps if they rarely open it. However, users will
rewardyour efforts if done correctly.
Apps
100%Google
Play’s
install
lead
over
iOS
40-‐70Number
of
apps
on

smartphones
Estimated
revenue
generated

from
app
between
2016-‐2020
$324B

According to a study from IAB last year, 50% of US respondents view content on mobile devices. Over
35% watch videos that are longer than 5 minutes on a daily basis. We’ve talked about multiple
screens for several years but not only are they using mobile while watching TV, 22% of users are
watching streaming video while watching TV.
Mobile is having a dramatic effect on sporting events as the NBC streams the Olympics in Rio. This is
nothing new as all of Wimbledon and soccer’s Euro 2016 was too. 17% of soccer fans watched at least
one match on their mobile phone and 40% stayed up-‐to-‐date with highlights, clips, stats and news
from the tournament.
As mobile video grew 6x faster than desktop in 2015, it’s making an impact on purchasing. Consumers
are 1.8x more likely to purchase after watching mobile video advertising. This translates to 52% of
consumers feeling more confident in the products they planned to purchase and purchases are up
with 40% of users buying a product after watching a video.
Possibly this rise is assisted by a retention rate that is 34% better than non-‐video ads. Users are also
more likely to watch a video on mobile (83%) than desktop (53%). Retail (19%), tech (18%) and
consumer packaged goods (16.5%) understand this and combined, make up over 50% of all campaigns
ran during Q4 2015.
As the mobile video ad spend doubled in 2015, 87% of marketers rated video marketing as effective.
The percentage of US marketers that plan to increase their spend rose to 65% for 2016. This is no
passing fad as consumers spent 39 minutes per day in 2015 watching video on mobile devices
compared to three minutes in 2011. Mobile trumps the plateauing desktop/laptop viewership by 15
minutes.
Video
1.8xMore
likely
to
purchase
after

mobile
video
ad
than
non-‐view
48%Of
Millennials
are
viewing
videos

solely
on
mobile

Of course social media is a big player in the amount of video watched. Searches for how-‐to videos on
YouTube increased 70% over 2015. 74% of Millennials follow brands on YouTube. Not to be left out,
Facebook logs 8B video views/day. However, 85% of videos on Facebook are viewed without audio.
Get your close captioning ready. Twitter’s numbers aren’t too bad either. 82% of its users watch
videos and 90% of them watch on mobile devices. While YouTube users search for specific videos,
Twitter users discover new content.
Mobile video is the golden child of marketing. The numbers are very positive. The largest downside is
that video advertising is one of the biggest complaints of users worried about their data usage. If
there was only a way to see if the user is on WiFi or using their carrier data plan and adjust content
accordingly.
Video
8BFacebook
videos

viewed/day
1.3%
4.5%
7.2%
In-‐Stream
Video Interactive
Pre-‐
Roll
Tap
to
Interactive

Video
Video
CTR
87%
27%
21%
In-‐Stream
Video Interactive
Pre-‐
Roll
Tap
to
Interactive

Video
Completion
Rate

Mobile advertising is rising at an impressive rate taking spend from other channels even though there
are still issues that need to be overcome. A study from MarketsandMarkets says the mobile marketing
sector is set for a 4x growth in the next five years totaling around $29 billion by 2021. During this
exponential growth spurt ZentithOptimedia predicts that more money will go into Internet and
mobile globally than TV commercials with digital advertising growing at 3x the rate of the rest of the
industry. The demand for advertising is boosted by large events like the Rio Olympics, the European
football championships and the US presidential election. The vast majority of the ad spend surge will
be mobile.
According to Outsell’s Annual Advertising and Marketing Study 2016, digital advertising and
marketing spend will equal “traditional” for the first time in 2016. This is great news on the surface.
Unfortunately, mobile represents 63% of time spent online yet only 35% of the online dollars. This
continues to be an issue that the ad spend doesn’t correlate with consumer behavior. Not only do
consumers spend more time on mobile, there is a higher lift in brand metrics due to mobile ads than
desktop in the US.
A theory to this brand lift is that mobile ads cover a greater portion of the screen causing them to
appear more directly in the consumer’s field of vision. Desktop display ads can be easily overlooked.
We are used to seeing desktop ads and where they are placed on the screen making it easier to
ignore them. Another theory is that mobile is closer to the point of sale. Unless you’re buying online,
it’s rather impractical to carry your desktop everywhere you go. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a person
carrying a laptop, much less a desktop, into a store that wasn’t getting it fixed.
Mobile
Advertising
1.4 1.3 1.5 1.4
2.3
2.7
3.3
3.7
Aided

Awareness
Favorability Likelyhood

Recommend
Purchase

Intent
Percentage
Point
Lift
in
Brand
Metrics
for

Desktop
and
Mobile
Ads
Source:
BSL
and
mBSL Benchmarks,
U.S.
Full
Year

2015
Desktop Mobile

In just over a year of its launch, the Facebook’s in-‐app ad network has passed $1
billion in annual run rate. Instagram reached over 200,000 advertisers. Click-‐thru-‐
rates (CTR) for retail were measured at 0.52% (highest), electronics at 0.41% and
entertainment at 0.40%. Unfortunately, 50% of clicks on mobile ads were accidental
according to GoldSpot Media. Ad clutter is cited as the biggest challenge of the
digital advertising experience by 54% surveyed by Ad Week and ad blocking grew
41% globally.
Digital video ad viewability continues to be a top campaign objective in the US. The
average viewability rate for digital video ads worldwide was 47% for Q1 2016
according to the ad platform Extreme Reach with little variability in ad lengths of 15
or 30 seconds. The low viewability could be directly related to mobile ads taking 2x
longer to load than desktop (Media Ratings Council).
While the initial reports sound great for mobile marketing and advertising. There is
definite improvement in meeting the consumers where they are, but it’s still a long
journey ahead. Speed may kill but slow kills video.
Mobile
Advertising
95%Growth
in
mobile

advertising
in
2015
75.9%Of
all
digital
ad
spend
will
be
mobile
by
2020

Ad blocking has certainly been a hot topic the first half of 2016. PageFair reports that 419MM people
(22% of the world’s 1.9B smartphone users) are blocking ads on the mobile web. Mobile browsers
that block ads grew 90% during 2015. This is nothing new to Asia where 93% of people who block ads
reside. The number of North American and European blockers numbers only 14MM combined. Tune
expects this number to grow from 24.6% in the US and UK in early 2016 to 80% by late2017.
Who’s leading the charge? Millennials. The 2016 Reuters Digital New report found that 18-‐24 year
olds block ads at a much higher rate than any other demographic. This does not paint a rosy picture
for marketers eager to communicate with the highly desired younger generation. This younger
generation is also more willing to pay to get rid of ads. However, this number is still not great. A
majority, 61%, of the younger users are unwilling to pay anything, compared to 82% of over 65 year-‐
olds that don’t want to pay a dime.
As the battle between publishers and ad blockers continue to wage, UK operator Three unveiled plans
to trial ad-‐blocking technology at the network level. This would effectively eliminate all ads for both
mobile web and in-‐app. Welcome news to users who are tired of ads eating into their data usage,
especially with video ads on the rise. Publishers are less than joyous at the thought of losing 10% of
their revenue over the next 4 years, an estimated cost of $78.2B by 2020.
Even though the industry understands a root cause of ad blocking adoption is a poor user experience,
this hasn’t translated into visible action to improve the issue, reduce privacy concerns or the increase
in malware. It’s time a regulatory group oversee the industry to put some teeth behind an industry
that is in such conflict.
Ad
Blocking
90%Growth
in
downloads
of
ad

blocking
mobile
browsers
in

2015
$78BCost
to
publishers
who

don’t
respond
adaquately to

ad-‐blocking
software
threat

Every year I hear the same ol’ line “SMS is dead” or dying. The rumors of its demise continues to be
misstated, at least when it comes to marketing and business use. Credence Research estimates the
A2P SMS market will expand at a CAGR of 4.9% over the next six years and be worth $78MM by 2022.
Two trillion messages are expected to be sent via A2P in 2017.
To support the use of SMS marketing techniques, BIA/Kelsey predicts a 40% growth rate of revenues
gained by spending generated by SMS in 2017 ($16.8B). Why shouldn’t it? 75% of mobile phones
worldwide are enabled to receive SMS messages and expected to rise to nearly 90% in the next 10
years making it imperative that companies include SMS in their marketing mix.
SMS marketing campaigns have produced seven times greater effectiveness than email campaigns. In
the US, they are permission-‐based that yield consequences to companies that don’t adhere to the
industry regulations. These regulations have reduced the amount of SMS marketing messages
perceived as spam to only 10%. With the fragmentation of OTT messaging apps like WeChat and
Messenger, lack of push consumer usage, restrictions placed on brands by the publishers and the
multitude of social media channels to maneuver, SMS is still an effective channel for brands to reach
their customers.
SMS
$16.8BRevenue
generated
fron SMS

marketing
in
2017
2TMessages
expected
to
be

sent
via
A2P
in
2017

While we’ve seen the traditional players like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn plateau, social media as a
channel hasn’t. Other players have certainly picked up the baton and continue to run full steam
ahead. Smartphone users get their news, are driven to websites and spend most of their mobile time
on social sites and apps.
Social users are mobile. Of the 2.3 billion active social media users globally, 85% or 1.97 billion of
them are active on mobile devices. Parks Associates revealed that 80% of US smartphone owners use
social networking apps at least once a day with 35% of them spending at least an hour a day on social
media via their mobile device. comScore posted that 61% of social media time spent on the
smartphone is in-‐app. This is an 8% year-‐over-‐year increase and poised to continue to grow since apps
are built for functionality and providing the smoothest experience possible.
As the big 3 social platforms begin to stagnate, Instagram accomplished in less than six years what
took Facebook nearly seven, hitting 500 million users. While 80% of its users are outside the US, they
have now reached 95MM images and posts shared daily from around the world.
Social
Media
50%unique
visitors
access
via
mobile
on
LinkedIn
1510
257
Monthly
Active
Users
Facebook Twitter
100
300
Daily
Active
Users
Snapchat Instagram

Thanks to social media sites like Pintrest, social traffic has become the second biggest driver of traffic
to websites only behind direct traffic. With heavy social use, mobile shopping follows. A study from
Criteo surveyed UK adults finding that social media users are more likely to purchase on mobile – 19%
of daily Snapchat users and 15% of daily Instagram and Pintrest users are buying via mobile every day.
This makes sense because users are only a click or two away from buying. It’s about convenience.
All is not bright in the social media world. Twitter saw a slight decline in quarter-‐over-‐quarter monthly
active users in Q4 2015. Ironically Facebook Reactions introduced by Facebook in February gets a sad
face as they failed to gain momentum with users. It’s a case of users requesting something that in
theory sounds great but doesn’t get used. While ‘love’ is certainly the most popular of the new
reactions at 50.8%, ‘love’ accounts for less than one-‐sixteenth of the amount of likes in the same
period. Good news, either users are much more apt to react to positive posts or users are posting
more positive posts than negative.
We’ve seen a lot of movement in social recently, including Facebook adding reactions, adding bots to
Messenger and the splitting off Messenger from the Facebook app. The established 3 have to keep up
with the newcomers and some are finding it difficult to do so they are buying the smaller guys like
Facebook or selling themselves like LinkedIn. What will Microsoft do with LinkedIn? That remains to
be seen.
Social
Media
16x

Love
35%
56%
64%
44%
20%
35%
51%
35%
17%
21%
23%
22%
FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM SNAPCHAT TWITTER
Heavy
users Light
users Non
users
How
social
media
usage
impacts
propensity
to
buy

on
mobile
(%
of
users
that
buy
on
mobile)

WhatsApp
passed
1
billion
users
worldwide
as
of
February
2016
sending
64B
message/day,
less
than

18
months
after
the
purchase
by
Facebook.
Six
out
of
the
top
ten
apps
are
messaging
apps.
Facebook

owns
the
top
two
and
three
of
the
top
ten.
With
80%
of
smartphone
users’
time
spent
on
3
apps,
the

importance
of
the
messaging
apps
cannot
be
understated
this
year.
Even
though
these
chat
apps
have

seen
exponential
growth
in
the
US,
it
doesn’t
mean
advertisers
will
be
getting
in
on
the
action

anytime
soon.
Messaging
$1MMRecords
sold
by
online
vinyl
seller

in
8
months
via
conversational

commerce
Ignited by mobile internet and smartphone growth, mobile messaging apps have strengthen and
solidified their position as an alternative to SMS with social media elements like group chats and
photo sharing. These over the top (OTT) services are just getting warmed up in the US. China has been
leading the way with WeChat making commerce a large part of the platform and giving the users a
much richer experience.
762
1000
100
WeChat
(China)
WhatsApp
(US)
Telegram
(Russia)
#
of
Monthly
Active
Users
(in
millions)

Like the early days of social media, marketers are experiencing similar conundrums. Where do they
focus their efforts? There are so many different chat apps with no clear winner globally or locally in
the US. User’s aren’t necessarily exclusive either. 72% of Snapchat users are also active on Facebook
Messenger, 54% on WhatsApp ad 51% on Skype. With no standard or regulations like SMS has, app
makers are concerned, and rightly so, about spam and abuse thus restricting marketer’s capability of
reaching their customers.
Facebook has experimented multiple times with advertisements and marketing on the messaging app
only to end the trials. Fortunately, they have given marketers chatbots and now there are 11,000
chatbots for users to try. Given the drawbacks of apps, there is a demand for bots. They are easy to
maintain and update since they don’t live on the smartphone itself. They will not replace apps but
complement them.
KLM found that users want private messages. Users are more likely to respond and have longer
conversations when the messages are private instead of public. Brands can bring a consistent level of
service. Bots also reduce the initial response time improving the customer experience. Currently
there are 10,000 companies developing artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to match the demand for
the smoother experience.
Messaging apps have a few more years left on them before Rich Communication Services (RCS) starts
competing and solving the problem users are going to have soon. The fragmented messaging app
market is going to reach a point where consolidation is going to be required. Only the strong will
survive similar to what we saw with social media. This time it’s going to be controlled by the carriers
though.
Messaging
Other
mobile

mesaging
25%
IM
apps
75%
Mobile
messaging
traffic
share
Other
mobile

mesaging
98%
IM
apps
2%
Mobile
messaging
revenue
share

It’s hard to deny the importance of email in the customer journey nor is it believable that email is
dead. Like technologies before, it is transforming. It must with the advent of mobile. Mobile email
accounts for 15 to 70% of email opens depending on your target audience, product and email type
according to eMailmonday’s “The Ultimate Mobile Email Stats.” Litmus “Email Analytics” (March
2016) says that 55% of email is opened on a mobile device. Experian reports that 65% of total email
opens occurred on a mobile phone or tablet in Q4 2015 up from 54% the previous quarter.
Unfortunately, in 2015, eConsultancy stated that only 21% of companies say they have an advanced
mobile email strategy. This is unfortunate since email accounts for 23% of “journey interactions”
between brands and consumers. Email is up 270% year-‐over-‐year according to Kitewheel. Yet, brands
are failing their customers. Only 32% of marketers preview emails in various email clients and
browsers, including mobile, before sending. This is a sad commentary on state of email and mobile
leading to immediate deletion or worse – users unsubscribing.
Progress is being made in the implementation of mobile-‐optimized templates by 66% of marketers.
However most of these templates do not support dynamic content allowing for personalization in the
emails. Marketers who optimize their messages for mobile with an entirely responsive email design
see improved results in B2B (40.7%) and B2C (38.5%).
It’s time the industry catches up. I’m still surprised with today’s emphasis on metrics that 20% of B2B
and B2C brands don’t know what impact optimizing their email design for mobile has on results.
There is no reason to send emails that are not optimized for mobile. The industry has past the tipping
point. Time to get on board.
Email
40%
47%
27%29%
52%
18%8%
35%
55%
Always Sometimes Never
Do
you
use
your
mobile
device
to
sort

through
your
emails
before
you
read
them
14
to
18 19
to
34 56
to
67

70%
12%
2%
8%
13%
0%
68%
25%
10%
16%
5% 5%
68%
29%
18%
15%
6%
2%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Delete
it Unsubscribe Read
it
anyway Look
at
it
on
my

computer
None
of
these File
it
If
you
get
an
ugly
email,
what
do
you
do?
58
to
67 19
to
34 14
to
18

Google handles 2T searches annually. Mobile accounts for more than half of
these searches. Google Search rated as the forth most popular app overall in the
US. It’s more important than ever to understand how people are searching. So,
now that we know apps aren’t going to kill search anytime soon, how are people
using search?
Voice is becoming an important part of search as 20% of all Android searches are
by voice. The average search length is 3.6 words. Two words adding to the string
length is “near me.” Mobile comprises 88% of all “near me” searches growing at
a rate of 146% year over year. Scott Beatty noted that by 2019, 141B local
searches will take place in the US alone. In early 2015, mobile took over desktop
for local search volume and the gap is widening dramatically according to BIA
Kelsey.
Although 77% of searches on mobile devices occur at home or work, mobile
search triggers quick online and offline action. These searches drive continued
research, visiting a retailer’s website or store, making a purchase or even calling
a business. Yes, we do still use phones to make calls. 56% of these calls are made
in less than an hour of the search. 80% visit a store within 5 hours of mobile
searches.
Search
77%Of
mobile
searches
are
at
home

or
work
88%Of
“near
me”
searches
are

completed
on
a
mobile
phone

24.20%
36.60%
24.00%
9.10%
6.00%
Daily
Frequently
Occasionally
Rarely
Never
How
often
do
you
use
a
phone
to

search
for
a
local
business?
Not all mobile searches are created equal. The context differs
based on location. For example, food and shopping rule in-‐store
searches. Shopping queries are twice as likely to be in the store.
Restaurants and travel trump on the go searches. While at home
and at work, searches for arts & entertainment and technology
reign supreme.
If Google’s Mobilegeddon wasn’t enough for you to warrant a
mobile-‐friendly website as non-‐optimized sites lost around 10% of
their traffic, 45% of people either look for a similar business or
refuse to do business with companies who disappoint on mobile.
Are you relatively unknown? Don’t fret. 78% of people have
discovered a business they didn’t know existed by searching on
their phone. So take heart, if you play your cards right, you can be
found.
Websites aren’t the only links that Google tracks. Google has
indexed 100B links within apps. With nearly two-‐thirds of the
searches going through Google, users can search and either be
taken to your website or a link inside your app. Everything is
searchable. Forget Internet of Things, Google’s giving you Search
of Things.
Search

The number of coupon prints has been declining 10% annually the past two years. Nothing to
stress about as load-‐to-‐card mobile and digital coupons have quintupled in that same period.
Nearly everyone with a smartphone will search for coupons this year to find the best deal and
the greatest value. 55-‐63% of smartphone owners used a mobile coupon on their phone in Q4
2015 according to Nielsen.
Millennials cannot get enough of this discounting method as 96% of Millennials have used
mobile coupons. 47% of Millennials have increased their usage in the past year, higher than
baby boomers by 21 percentagepoints.
It’s long been known that coupons and offers sent through SMS have outperformed other
channels like print (10x) and email (6x). Effectiveness isn’t the only change that is happening
with the increased usage. Nearly half of shoppers will switch the purchase because of a coupon.
SMS and QR codes prompt 50% to make a direct purchase after receiving the offer. If you want
to increase mobile payment activity, 60% would be more likely to use mobile payments after
receiving a mobile coupon.
36% of customers would like to receive coupons based on location and 39% would spend more
if the coupons were personalized. Speaking of location, there were 11MM coupons delivered
via beacon in 2015. This number is predicted to grow exponentially to 1.6B by 2020.
Millennial’s mobile use and their desire to find a good deal yields a very bright future for mobile
couponing. Combining purchase history, geo-‐location tactics like beacons, CRMs and analytics
will create a perfect storm to see this marketing tactic skyrocket as coupon offers are
individualized and delivery targeted.
Couponing
1.6BCoupons
delivered
annually
via

beacon
in
2020
39%Would
spend
more
if
mobile

coupons
were
personalized

Mobile is no longer a small subset of commerce. Shopify found that more than 50% of e-‐commerce
traffic is driven by mobile. Business insider forecasts that by 2020 mobile will account for 45% of the
US’s $632B total e-‐commerce sales. Verizon found that 56% of US adults bought a product or service
using an app in 2015. That number grows to 70% when it comes to Millennials. Starbucks has 16MM
active users of their mobile app and processes 8MM mobile payments per week.
Mobile affects more than purchases through websites, it touches individuals and in-‐store
transactions. Ovum says that 1.61B users will process $271B in 2019, up from $15B in 2014. Venmo, a
P2P payments app in the US, said its users sent and received $1B during the month of January 2016,
2.5 times the volume it handled in January 2015. US in-‐store mobile payment volume is predicted to
reach $75B this year according to Business Insider. This estimate is three times the projected volume
put forth by PackagedFacts in their report Mobile Payments in the US.
While we saw a drop in mobile retail penetration for the first time in Q1 2016, the US holiday spend
on mobile increased 59% so the drop is understandable and short-‐lived. What’s behind this
movement? Convenience. Timing couldn’t have been better for the transition in the US as the switch
to EMV was painful to consumers and merchants were required to replace their old, tired credit card
terminals to newer hardware that could accept mobile payments. It was a perfect storm.
According to the Consumers and Mobile Financial Services 2016 report, 45% of consumers use mobile
out of convenience. Mobile phones are always within reach, unlike the desktop or the store. People
by at home in front of the television, in bed at night, on lunch break, on their commute or at home
over dinner, in other words, wherever they’re at. In most cases, convenience is trumping usability.
Mobile
Payments
and
Commerce
59%US
holiday
spend
on
mobile

increase
8MMMobile
payments
per
week

at
Starbuck

Last year, mobile influenced $1 trillion in retail sales. Over half, 51%, of purchases made by
respondents of a recent UPS study were made online. This affects in-‐store traffic as half of the
shoppers who purchase online, ship to a physical store. Nearly half of these shoppers made additional
purchases. Marketers are seeing the importance of mobile in this mix. In 2016, mobile will trump
desktop’s importance according to 76% of marketers.
We are starting to see an improved focus on mobile as 68% of companies have integrated mobile
marketing. However, in a study by Episerver, just under half of the top international retailers still don’t
offer an iPhone app. There are still top retailers that haven’t made the investment in a mobile-‐friendly
website. Several take longer than 10 seconds to load which is a killer considering that 50% will
abandon a website if it takes that long to load. Yet, 61% will contact a local business if the website is
mobile optimized.
CMS Report determined that 57% percent of users won’t recommend a business not using a mobile
optimized website. Mobile apps and truly mobile-‐friendly websites must factor into any retailer’s
strategy. Keeping the business at the top of their customer’s mind will ensure that their products are
never more than a click or tap away.
While shoppers are buying more and more online, they still value the physical store. The physical
store still provides values and experiences that cannot be replicated by a website or app. Of course,
that depends on the customer service and with only 36% of shoppers saying they have experienced
helpful associates when returning items, retail isn’t off to a good start on that one.
Retail:
Mobile
Influence
80%Consumers
use
a

smartphone
to
shop
79%
73%
55%
55%
54%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
User
reviews
Investigating
price
Investigating
a
range
of

color
choices
Looking
for
a
more

detailed
product
…
Interested
in
whether

the
product
is
right
…
Reasons
that
US
female
beauty

buyers
use
their
mobile
phones

while
shopping
in-‐store

A few years ago it was showrooming that was the fear of brick-‐and-‐mortar stores. Then there was
webrooming. It’s time to quit complaining about how people shop and provide them what they need
to keep doing business with you.
Shoppers use their smartphones in your store, nearly 80% of them. They compare prices with
competitors (36%), research products (36%), access coupons (31%) and access confirmation emails to
pick up products that were purchased online (25%), for example. These numbers swell anywhere from
5-‐8 points higher for 18-‐34 year olds according to PwC.
Deliotte found that digital influences 49% of in-‐store sales. Mobile came in at 28%. However, with
75% of female shoppers using smartphones in the store to investigate pricing, that number sounds
low. No matter how you measure it, mobile affects shopping, whether it’s online or in the store. We
know the store isn’t going anywhere. With 90% of the retail spend happening in the stores and 70%
taking place within 15-‐20 miles of home or work, retailers must figure out how to enhance their
efforts with mobile to address cost, control and convenience.
Retail:
Mobile
Influence
72%Marketers
believe
mobile
will
be

more
important
to
brand
than

desktop
in
2016
$4BUS
retail
sales
in
2015

driven
by
beacons
10xIncrease
in
retail
sale
driven
by

beacons
in
2016
versus
2015

South Korea recently announced an Internet of Things (IoT) network that will be available across the
entire country at a low cost of $0.30-‐2.75/month. This would be a much larger endeavor for the US
since South Korea is about the size of Maine. However, the growth of the IoT is astounding.
Vision Mobile reports there were 4.5 million IoT developers in the world at the end of 2015 and will
more than double by 2020. Samsung announced it will spend $1.2 billion over the next 4 years.
Mobile operators, telecom firms and tech companies spent over $31 billion on IoT-‐related acquisitions
and investments between 2011 and 2015. Research firm Ovum tracked 76 deals across eight sectors.
According to the research firm IDC, the global IoT market will be worth $1.7 trillion in 2020 with 50
billion connected things (according to Gartner). Between Q3 and Q4 2015, the number of proximity
sensors increased from 3.35MM to 5MM.
Let those numbers sink in a little before we look a little closer…There are 10 million telematics
insurance polices in Europe and the U.S. By the end of 2015, 17.9 million smart homes exist in Europe
and North America with estimated growth to reach 35% of all households by 2020. Globally we use 97
million wearables that produce, wait for it…15 petabytes MONTHLY. A petabyte is a million gigabytes.
By 2020, according to Berg, there will be 228 million connected wearables shipped.
Internet
of
Things
$53.8BSales
generated
in
6
years
(Grand
View
Research)
97MMWearable
devices
in
2015
generated

15
peteabytes of
monthly
traffic
generated

Earlier I mentioned proximity sensors. We cannot forget those. According to Juniper Research, nearly
1.6 billion coupons will be delivered annually to consumers via beacon technology in the next four
years. That’s up from around 11 million last year when we saw 46% of retailers deploying beacons. An
estimated 85% of the top 100 retailers are expected to install beacons by the end of this year. One
reason for the optimistic estimation comes from a study from Horizon Media which found that
beacons offering special discounts would “definitely influence my buying decisions,” and retailers
have reported significant higher redemption rates with beacons delivering coupons than by other
means.
I would be remiss unless I brought attention to a few downsides to the above sunny outlook.
Currently, consumers aren’t that enthused about smart homes. 62% see smart home products as
being to expensive. 64% state that smart home products are difficult to use. It’s unfortunate that we
have run into the same VHS versus Betamax issue in the 1970s and 1980s. What’s worse is that it’s
not just two but a couple of handfuls of different “standards” fighting for supremacy making it difficult
for not only consumers but developers as well.
The other downside comes with 1.6 billion coupons delivered via beacons. How long before
consumers turn it off and effectively shut down the beacon network after being harassed with too
many messages as they walk through the store. Understanding the customer completely, their
behavior, their wants, their needs and their desires are going to be more important than ever if
businesses expect the customers not to block them from the most personal device they have.
Internet
of
Things
1.6BCoupons
delivered
annually

to
consumers
via
beacons
(Juniper
Research)

Apple brought the wearable market to the forefront with their smartwatch. They now control two-‐
thirds of the world’s smartwatch shipments according to Canalys. However, the astounding number to
me is 1,683. That is the number of prototypes that OmSignal designed before settling on the OmBra
after noticing the gapin wearable brands that cateredto women.
Although Apple owns the smartwatch industry, they don’t own the wearable market. This is becoming
more evident as the industry matures as Apple Smartphone sales dropped over 63% in Q1 2016
(1.5MM) from Q4 2015 (4.1MM). The holiday season is over for the Apple Watch. Meanwhile the
industry is set for an 18.4% rise in sales (Gartner) and 38.2% rise in shipments (IDC). To make matters
“worse” for Apple, only 13% intend to purchase a smartwatch this year.
What is driving the increase in wearable sales? Fitness wearables like Fitbit lead the wearable sector
as a whole. The lines between fitness and watch are going to continue to blur until they are
indistinguishable over the next three years. These fitness devices are cheaper and have more obvious
uses than current smartwatches that are seen as more of a luxury device than a practical or helpful
one.
Wearables
57%Wearable
use
increase
in
2015
60-‐80Times
per
day
Apple
Watch
owners
look
at
their
device

Microsoft Acquire LinkedIn
Nokia Acquires Withings
CLX Acquires Mblox advanced enterprise cloud communications
ShopAdvisor Acquires Retailigence
Sailthru Acquires Carnival.io
Telenor Acquires Tapad
Notable
Mergers
and
Acquisitions

(through
June
2016)

Judd
Wheeler
Judd
Wheeler
draws
on
more
than
20
years
of
digital
marketing
and
consulting
experience

for
companies
ranging
from
startups
to
Fortune
500
companies.
Judd
has
produced
the
first

mobile
conference
in
Oklahoma,
presented
as
the
keynote
speaker
internationally
and
wrote

“160
Characters
of
Less:
How
to
Increase
Customer
Loyalty,
Drive
Sales
and
WIN
with
Text

Message
Marketing.”
Judd
Wheeler
works
for
3Cinteractive,
whose
focus
is
enabling
mobile

consumer
engagement
to
extend
connections
between
consumers
and
brands
to
increase

loyalty,
brand
awareness,
and
results.

2016 Mid Year State of the Mobile Industry

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2016 Mid Year State of the Mobile Industry