Mobile technologies are increasingly prevalent. Smartphone ownership is growing rapidly and surpassing feature phone ownership. People now spend more time on their smartphones each day than with their partners. Wireless data traffic is also exploding, growing 20,000% over 5 years for one major carrier and expected to increase 13-fold globally by 2017. However, mobile users are not always in a rush - many are willing to engage in longer sessions for various tasks using their smartphones. Effective mobile strategies focus on providing core services across all devices rather than dumbing things down for mobile.

1. Mobile Technologies Update
: what’s hot, what’s relevant
Southeast Florida Health Sciences Library Consortium Meeting, Sep. 13, 2013
Bohyun Kim
Digital Access Librarian, Florida International University Medical Library

2. More Smartphones than Feature
Phones in Use
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Smartphone-Ownership-2013/Findings.aspx

3. http://www.pewinternet.org/Trend-Data-%28Adults%29/Device-Ownership.aspx

4. Text, No Voicemail
Image from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40198520@N00/7943106962/

5. Text, No Voicemail
• Leaving a voice mail instead of texting is
impolite because it wastes the receiver’s time.
• Asking people something that is easily
discoverable on the Internet is equally rude
because the communication is not only
unnecessary but also time-consuming.
Nick Bilton, “Disruptions: Digital Era Redefining Etiquette,” Bits (blog), New York Times,
March 10, 2013, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/ etiquette-redefined-in-the-
digital-age.

6. Preoccupied by Smartphone
Image from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/35075971@N00/3839176730/

7. Preoccupied by Smartphone
• An estimated 20 million passengers miss bus or
train stops each year because of "digital
distraction" from their smartphone.
• The problem has affected 51% of Britons and
causes around 15% of commuters to run late for
meetings, according to the findings.
• Over the last year, passengers have missed their
stops an estimated 29 million times.
Mobile Life Report by O2/Samsung (2013), http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-
news/smartphones-lead-to-missed-stops-1.

8. We Spend More Time with our
Smartphone than our Partner
• While the average British
smartphone owner
spends 97 minutes a day
with their nearest and
dearest, they spend 119
minutes – just shy of two
hours – on their phones.
Mobile Life Report by O2/Samsung (2013),
http://news.o2.co.uk/?press-release=i-cant-
talk-dear-im-on-my-phone.
Image from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smith/6267342711/

9. Maslow’s Pyramid with Wi-Fi

10. Wireless Data Traffic Explosion
• Over the five-year period from 2007 to 2011,
wireless data traffic on AT&T, the second
largest wireless carrier in the United States,
has grown 20,000 percent, at least doubling
itself every year since 2007.
Chris Velazco, “AT&T’s Wireless Data Traffic Doubles Every Year, but Throttling Is Not the
Solution,” TechCrunch, February 14, 2012, http://techcrunch. com/2012/02/14/atts-
wireless-data-traffic-doubles- every-year-but-throttling-is-not-the-solution.

11. More Increase Mobile Data Traffic
• Worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 13-
fold over the next four years, reaching 11.2
exabytes per month (134 exabytes annually)
by 2017.
Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012–2017,
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white
_paper_c11-520862.html

12. Cisco’s Mobile Data Traffic Forecast

13. Exabyte = 10006 byte

14. We now spend 37 percent of our
Internet time on mobile.
ComScore, 2013 Mobile Future in Focus, white paper (Reston, VA: comscore, February
2013), 12, www.comscore.com/
Insights/presentations_and_Whitepapers/2013/2013_Mobile_Future_in_Focus

15. Mobile Web vs. Desktop Web
Image from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29487767@N02/4053393372/

16. How We Use Our Smartphones
Mobile Life Report by O2/Samsung (2012)http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-
phones/9365085/Smartphones-hardly-used-for-calls.html.

17. How long we spend using our
smartphones (by activity) each day
• Browsing the internet 24
• Checking social networks 16
• Listening to music 15
• Playing games 13
• Making calls 13
• Text messaging 11
• Checking/writing emails 9
• Reading books 8
• Watching TV/films 7
• Taking photographs 3
• Total 119 minutes
Mobile Life Report by O2/Samsung (2013), http://news.o2.co.uk/?press-release=i-cant-
talk-dear-im-on-my-phone.

18. What we do on the smartphone and
the tablet
ComScore, 2013 Mobile Future in Focus, white paper (Reston, VA: comscore, February 2013), 33,
www.comscore.com/ Insights/presentations_and_Whitepapers/2013/2013_Mo- bile_Future_in_Focus.

19. Mobile Device Use at Home
• According to the interviews and the survey
conducted by Yahoo! and the Nielsen
Company in June 2010 , 93 percent of mobile
users accessed the Internet on their mobile
devices away from home but as many as 89
percent also used their mobile devices to
access the Internet inside their home.
Ashmeed Ali, Edwin Wong, Gateley Meeker, andDavid Gill, The Mobile Shopping Framework Study: The Role of
Mobile Devices in the Shopping Process, white paper (New York: Nielsen Company, January 2011), 5,
www.slideshare.net/ashmeed25/mobile-shopping- frameworkstudy2010whitepaper-final.

20. Occasions for Mobile Device Use
Danielle Bulger, “smartphone owners: A Ready and Willing Audience,” Compete Pulse blog, March 12, 2010,
http://blog.compete.com/2010/03/12/smartphone- owners-a-ready-and-willing-audience

21. Mobile Consumer Behavior
• There’s a persistent myth that mobile users are
always distracted, on the go, “info snacking” in
sessions of 10 seconds. That’s certainly part of
the mobile experience, but not the whole story.
Mobile isn’t just “mobile”. It’s also the couch, the
kitchen, the three-hour layover, all places where
we have time and attention to spare. 42 percent
of mobile users say they use it for entertainment
when they’re bored. Those aren’t 10-second
sessions. That means we shouldn’t design only
for stunted sessions or limited use cases.
Josh Clark, “Nielsen Is Wrong on Mobile,” .Net Magazine, April 12, 2012,
www.netmagazine.com/ opinions/nielsen-wrong-mobile.

22. Are Mobile Users in a Rush? No.
• People are turning to their smartphones more to
utilize their downtime than to meet some urgent
need and that users are not always in a huge rush
when they are using their smartphones. (p.11)
• People are willing to and actually do turn to their
mobile devices for a longer time than just a few
minutes and for tasks that can be complicated.
(p.12)
Bohyun Kim, The Library Mobile Experience: Practices and User Expectations, Library Technology
Report 49(6), ALA TechSource, 2013.

23. Don’t Dumb Things Down on Mobile
• There are, of course, differences based on mobile
and desktop usage patterns; but the core value of
a web service remains the same across both
formats and beyond. In fact, you’ll quickly find
your customers will expect to do just about
everything (within reason) on mobile. Especially
those who primarily (or only) use their mobiles to
get online. So don’t dumb things down on
mobile—focus on what really matters most
anywhere people can access your website.
Wroblewski, Mobile First, 22.

24. What would be mobile-appropriate in
2016? MIT Libraries’ 2011 Survey
Heather Denny, “survey snapshot: Library Research Using Mobile Devices,” MIT Libraries News, December 3,
2012, http://libraries.mit.edu/sites/news/survey- snapshot-library/9911

25. Put Mobile-Friendly Content Forward

26. Consumers are Device-Agnostic
http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Telecommunications/Developing_a_fine-
grained_look_at_how_digital_consumers_behave

27. Ubiquitous Screens
http://trendwatching.com/trends/12trends2012/?screenculture

28. Questions?
Slides: hhttp://www.slideshare.net/bohyunkim/sefhslc-sep2013
Image from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/5wa/9093756181