The first mobile phone went on sale exactly 30 years ago in March 1984 - for

the rather princely sum of around 6,000.

Since then, you could say theres never been a dull moment. Promises of new
technologies and ways of living, gigantic shifts in business models and global
economies, no one could really guess then what we would be facing now
a truly connected world underpinned by mobile technology.
From smartphones to tablets, and the coming Wearables revolution, its not
the future thats mobile, its right here, right now.
This year will see even more of these seismic shifts- and weve nailed the 5
megatrends in mobile that as a CEO, Software Development Manager or Brand
Manager you need to be focused on to get the most out of your business.

Based in Dundee Scotland, Waracle is a full service mobile app development, web and marketing agency. Weve worked with some of the UKs biggest brands and businesses to help them mobilise and market their software.
Were worked with Virgin Atlantic, O2, Highland Park Whiskey, Imperial College London and Jones Lang LeSalle to name but a few. If youre looking to take
those difficult first steps into the world of mobile, contact the team directly to
discuss your project in detail.

CONTENT

1. DEVICE SHIPMENTS

2. APPLE V ANDROID

3. MULTI-SCREEN LIVING

11

4. WEARABLES & IOT

14

5. VOICE-ACTIVATED SEARCH

17

CONCLUSION & KEY TAKEAWAYS

20

SO WHATS NEXT?

21

1. DEVICE SHIPMENTS

Shipments of mobile devices are projected to reach 2.5 billion units in 2014*

Worldwide Device Shipments by Operating System (Millions of Units)

Operating System

2013

2014

2015

Android

879,8

1,171

1,358

Windows

325,1

339,1

379,1

iOS/Mac OS

241,4

286,4

324,5

Others

873,2

683,5

565,2

Total

2,319

2,479

2,627

Shipments include mobile phones, ultramobiles and PCs

Source: Gartner (March 2014)

Once, you had to go online. Now you are online. So it can hardly be a surprise to anyone
that mobile device shipments have overtaken desktop. With phones taking the majority of
the share, overall device sales this year will beat last years totals by an impressive 6.9%.
Mobile is not going away. If youre not already planning, heres what you need to be thinking about

WHAT IT MEANS?

WHAT TO DO?

If youre in the software sector, mobile changes

everything. Your audience is now consuming
and using your products across a range of devices.

You need to be planning for this and factoring

it in to your overall business strategy. To cater
for your mobile customers its crucial that you
deliver your products and services in a way that
enables them to work seamlessly across devices and locations - from the office, to on the
road to on the couch. If you cant, theyll find a
company that can.

If you sell online, mobile has irreversibly altered

the e-commerce landscape. Mobile plays an increasingly important role in the overall buying
cycle, from arousing interest to completing a
transaction. Mobile shoppers will move across a
range of devices at different times of day to find
out what they want, look at competing offerings,
compare prices etc. But mobile commerce is a
difficult nut to crack and only a few companies
do it successfully.

E-Commerce tends not to work well for long

tail brands on mobile. If youre selling online its
fundamental to understand where mobile fits
with your overall buying cycle. Most people do
the research stuff on mobiles, then move to the
heavy hammer to buy (unless youre Amazon/
Ebay/Ikea).

In terms of internal IT, its no longer IT that call

the shots. Your employees will increasingly
demand to work across a range of mobile devices, both on-site and when working remotely.
Theyll want to avoid using localised storage in
favour of storing, managing and accessing data
via the cloud for greater flexibility.

If you dont give your workforce the flexibility to

work across mobile, theyll go around you. Plan
now to empower your staff to use mobile devices to do their work you will be rewarded
with a happier, more flexible, more productive
workforce.

As the world shifts towards mobile devices, so

too will users of your software. Accessibility and
user experience become central to success.

Your UI needs to be concise and captivating as it

becomes harder to hold user attention via mobile. With heavy competition youll need to design and develop a mobile UI/UX that stands out
from the crowd and identifies with the complex
characteristics of Gen Y.

The Marketing arm of the business will begin to

evolve around mobile at an exponential pace their needs will impact heavily on your team.

Youll need to ensure your software UI is designed to support lead generation via mobile.
Youll also need to understand and then plan
how to position and design an enticing call-toaction and at the same time establish how to
utilise click-to-call functionality thats unique
to mobile (and which was never prevalent via
desktop UI).

The focus is moving from desktop developers

to mobile UI, requiring a whole new set of skills
and thinking.

Review your existing team capabilities and start

planning for the long-term around mobile. Big
opportunities knock for SWDMs who take the

The focus is moving from desktop developers

to mobile UI, requiring a whole new set of skills
and thinking.

plunge and immerse themselves in mobile UI

early on in the game but retraining existing
desktop developers can be costly and difficult,
especially if theyve been heavily anchored in
desktop for a long time. Mobile developers are
now in high demand and short supply. Using an
agency can help to get you started and learn the
basics in terms of developing UI/UX - over time
you can taper this expertise into your own team.

Its no longer just about desktops and websites

- mobile will now be affecting the success or
otherwise of your marketing strategy whether you know it or not.

Youll now need to start getting tuned to the

idea of mobile campaigns. Your customers use
a range of devices to make a purchase decision, so start to research around the role that
mobile plays here and the overall affect that it
has on your ability to generate leads, sign-ups
and conversions. Then use the findings to shape
how your strategy around mobile in your marketing mix for example, when optimising your
site and landing pages make sure your CTA is
visible above the fold for smartphone and tablet; consider the benefits of location features
and click-to-call functionality. If you dont have
the expertise in-house to do this, outsource.

Mobile plays an increasingly important role in

the overall buying cycle, from arousing interest
to completing a transaction. Mobile shoppers
will move across a range of devices at different times of day to find what they want, review
competing offerings and compare prices.

Understanding your modal customer journey

is imperative. Do they first interact with your
brand via mobile? What brings them back? Do
they switch to a desktop to buy? Can you eliminate this in return for more signups? Take time
to consider how mobile can be used to generate
demand and leverage the unique opportunities
afforded by mobile.

Our web stats have shown a huge increase in mobile visitors to our

various web properties. The way we design websites now focuses primarily on mobile. Desktop design is now secondary to this.

James Brown, Business Development Director, G1

2. APPLE V ANDROID

When it comes to mobile, its always been a two-horse race

6%

1%
3%

53%

Android

36%

iOS
BlackBerry
Windows
Other Smartphones

(diagram depicts US mobile OS market overview 2013)

other opponents exist, including Blackberry and Windows, but their combined market
share is tiny compared to the Big Two. Until recently, Apple dominated the US market in
terms of sales and market share, but then Android snuck up behind and stole the crown.
Its also the most used operating system for tablet devices - notching up an admirable 62%
of the market and growth estimates for its share of the smartphone market are pushing 80% for 2014. Glory days indeed, but when you consider its Apple raking in the money,
what does the market dominance of these two platforms mean for your business?

WHAT IT MEANS?

WHAT TO DO?

As a CEO you need to be tuned-in to the devices

your customers are using and create apps accordingly.

In the first instance, establish the device preferences of your customer base. For example
if your users are based in USA or Europe youll
want to develop focus first on developing for
iOS. But dont assume - focused research in this
area is key to success.
Next, youll need to identify existing mobile resources within your company and establish

what you need to move forward. This might

be outsourcing to an agency, re-training your
desktop developers - or recruiting developers
that are in high demand.
Mobile is dramatically altering the purchasing
journey. If you sell online, both Apple and Android can play an important role in nurturing
your customers through the buying cycle. Mobile
is great for top of the funnel information search,
this applies to Apple and Android alike. However Apple is more likely to monetise harder at
the bottom of the funnel with Apple customers
particularly primed for monetisation think expensive devices, pay-for apps, IAPs etc. Android
monetisation on the other hand is much less
mature and heavily fragmented across devices.

Most developers in US/UK/AUS develop first for

iOS. Why? Its the easiest place to start and the
most likely to generate paying customers. Typically, focus on iOS first, then an equivalent for
Android. And dont forget Windows its currently gaining momentum and it would be foolhardy to overlook.

Developing for both Android and iOS is a nobrainer.

As the world increasingly shifts towards mobile devices, so too will users of your software.
The challenge now is to make it as accessible
as possible. How? Youll need to consider how
to develop UI for mobile which means actively
sourcing development expertise in Android and
iOS. With everyone now focusing on the latter first, demand for iOS expertise is extremely
high. This is where you might want an agency
to step in and help get you started.

If youre selling online be aware that Apple is

king for monetisation and engagement and that
its users are primed and conditioned to spend
quicker.
Android users on the other hand start the journey further up the funnel and are less quick to
spend - and the Android OS can be challenging to
develop for in terms of creating a seamless UX.

Be ready to deliver your UX around a crystal

clear vision of your customers and which devices theyre using. Its generally accepted that iOS
users are more willing to part with money than
Android. So moving forward you need to be absolutely clear about where each OS fits into your
strategy and then plan carefully around your customer needs for delivering a valuable experience.

10

Its no longer just about desktops and websites

- mobile will be affecting every area of your
business whether you know it or not.

Youll need to getting tuned in to the idea of responsive campaigns that work across different
devices. Your customers will use a range of different devices to make a purchase decision so
start to research around the role that mobile
plays here and the overall affect that mobile has
on your ability to generate leads, sign-ups and
conversions.
Use findings to inform how you will include mobile in your marketing mix for example, when
optimising your site and landing pages, make
sure your CTA is visible above the fold of smartphone and tablet; consider the benefits of location features and click-to-call functionality. If
you dont have the expertise in-house to do this,
outsource.

The penetration of each platform varies between different target markets. Low cost Android devices mean Android is more prevalent amongst
cost conscious senior citizens. Windows Mobile is gaining a foothold in
businesses that rely on Microsoft for all of their other services and are
now looking to replace Blackberry. Many individuals are unwilling to
commit fully to one ecosystem and more and more households will have
a mix of platforms. Therefore, the only way to ensure you reach all of
your target market is to support iOS, Android and WinMo although that
is no small undertaking.

Mark Petrie, Director of Engineering, GFI

3. MULTI-SCREEN LIVING

11

Not all screens are created equally

The new Multi-Screen World

Understanding Cross -Platform Consumer Behavior

90%

38%

of our daily media

interactions are
on smartphones

of all media interactions

are screen based

Youve heard the line, The best computer is the one you have with you when you want
something? With 90% of multiple device owners moving between screens to complete the
same task, never has this been more true. We look at our phone an average of 150 times a
day (peak times being when we get up, on our way to and just arriving at work, commuting
home and after dinner) - and nearly half of us use it in the bathroom (make of that what
you will). So as devices move from the corner of the living room to the palm of our hand
(and the bathroom), theyre changing not only what we want, but when we want it. This is
already having huge implications for your business whether you know it yet or not.

WHAT IT MEANS?

WHAT TO DO?

Multiscreen isnt a stand-alone method of

consuming content it IS how we consume
content.

Seek out and implement research activities

in and around your brand that will provide
you with focused and integrated intelligence
around your customers multiscreen activities.
Then, start planning for investment in the development of a unified brand experience that functions effectively and seamlessly across a num-

12

ber of different devices securely via the cloud.

There are huge rewards for companies who
can embrace multi-screening to create unique
and engaging experiences for customers - so to
get you up and running quickly, consider partnering with mobile marketing experts who will
provide you with a clear vision on next steps.
Multi-screen ad spend is forecast to increase
from 20% of budgets this year to half of budgets
within 3 years.

Consider the role that multi-screen plays in your

overall channel mix and start planning for a realistic budget allocation that covers the entire
customer journey. Next, utilize new planning
and effectiveness tools and expertise to assist your transition to a multi-screen strategy.

How we use mobile is evolving at a rapid pace.

Trying to keep up with your customers means
theres a stampede on for developers with a
mobile-focused skillset demand is outstripping supply.

You now need to start planning and building a

development team with mobile expertise. Mobile development requires specialist thought and
skills. Transitioning desktop developers to mobile
can be time consuming and resource-draining
and requires someone to lead the way. This can
be done through recruitment agencies but good
mobile developers are tricky to source. Outsourcing additional capacity can be the best way to go.

Consumers move sequentially across devices.

Your customers journey to purchase now starts
on one screen and moves to another, possibly even another. The first screen may be the
smartphone, the second might be the tablet, or
the notebook. Making sure that cross-screen
journey delivers a seamless experience is key.

Multi-screen attribution is becoming a hot topic

in marketing. Increasingly marketing managers
are switching marketing spend over to mobile to
test if they can have a competitive advantage.
However, it pays to test and produce a model of
ROI. This is difficult and might be worth finding a marketing agency with expertise in mobile
marketing.

Mobile has empowered your customers to tailor

their purchase journey how they want it as they
shift sequentially from one device to another
(also sometimes using devices simultaneously)
through each stage of the buying process.

Mobile plays a particularly important role at the

not ready to buy yet stage of the buying cycle,
so as marketers you need to have soft conversion points that generate demand, position your
brand as a thought leader and empower your

13

customers to make a confident and informed

purchase decision.

With newer devices and rapidly increasing broadband penetration, storage of data is now paramount for us as a club and a business. Over the
course of a season we use an enormous amount of storage for video files
and the ability to have affordable cloud storage which is easily accessible would help greatly.

Joe Rice, Communications & Media Manager, Dundee United FC

4. WEARABLES & IOT

14

By 2020 we will be living in a world of 20 billion web connected devices

Global Wearable Computing Devices

World Market, Forecast: 2013 - 2019

Smart Watched
Wearable 3D Motion Trackers
Sports/Activity Trackers
Healthcare

Millions

Smart Glasses
Smart Clothing
Wearable Cameras

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

By 2018, the Wearables market is predicted to be worth at least $19 billion. And thats a
conservative estimate. These Wearables right now, think Google Glass, Nike Toolband
and the recently launched Oral B Smartseries toothbrush - are redefining our relationship
to the world around us, rewriting and reshaping the narrative on how we connect with
each other, how we communicate and share our lives across any distance, any time zone.
The smartest companies are already thinking about how Wearables will impact their business. Are you one of them?

15

WHAT IT MEANS?

WHAT TO DO?

Whilst there is a long way to go in Wearables,

when it takes off it will be as disruptive to business as the smartphone is right now. Truly understanding the mind-set and motivations of
your mobile consumers is not something you
can choose to do or not - its a necessity. Wearables will go mainstream and data about customers behaviours will become more prolific
and more accessible, thus paving the way for
the provision of a more personal brand experience.

Youll need to think about your software offering in new, unconventional ways - for example, smart sensors will reduce manual interaction with software and open up new
opportunities for really innovative thinking.
Redefining how you connect your audience
with an increasing focus on mobile/wearable will become a necessity and if youre
struggling to think about how, engage a mobile development/marketing agency sooner rather than later to spike your thinking.

Desktop development will become a marginal

vocation made largely obsolete by mobile tech,
Wearable and the IoT. Mobile requires radically
different and evolutionary thought compared to
desktop. Developers currently working on mobile will be best positioned to create new and
innovative software for Wearable and the IoT.
Those whore currently anchored in desktop will
be required to learn mobile before making the
step to Wearable.

Wearable technology will become an essential component of your companys mix of

technology and youll need to be prepared for
this new landscape. Kicking off with the basics, youll be required to develop location,
device and time sensitive messaging in order to provide a more contextually relevant
experience.to consumers who are actively
searching for specific products and services.
UI design will need to be heavily intuitive and
rely on Wearable focused features like voice activated search. And like mobile, designing and
developing for Wearables will be dramatically
different to traditional desktop-focused practices. Start considering the skills and expertise
required to develop for these devices. Mobile
developers will be perfectly equipped to take
on the new wave of Wearable tech. You can
retrain existing developers, hire new ones or
outsource to an experienced company already
infused with mobile/Wearable-first thinking.

Wearable tech will outperform smartphones

and tablets in terms of accessibility which in

When the time comes, start planning for a strategy that considers how these devices are used

16

turn will present a vast array of opportunities

for quick thinking marketers. Your potential
customers will use an ever increasing number
of devices when buying products and services
online. Theyll also use these various devices to
consume content like HD video. Growth in this
area of content consumption will be driven by
network operators as 4G is rolled out in western
territories.

in specific contexts (time of day, location etc.)

in order to best take advantage of the unique
opportunities Wearable and the IoT will afford.

Wearable tech and the IoT are facilitating seismic changes in terms of consumer behaviour.

There will be huge opportunities for marketers

in terms of data collection via Wearable. This
will provide a richer picture of consumer buying traits and locations so youll need to plan for
the ability to serve the right content, at the right
time, in the correct location and to the appropriate devices.

The ability to work across devices is just a given now. People expect this
level of accessibility. It helps get around the reality that most peoples corporate devices, such as their desktop PCs, have older operating systems
than their personal devices. My continued focus will be ensuring a high
standard and consistency of user experience - whatever the device.

Suzanne Doyle-Morris, CEO, InclusIQ

5. VOICE-ACTIVATED SEARCH

17

By 2020 we will be living in a world of 20 billion web connected devices

Global Wearable Computing Devices

World Market, Forecast: 2013 - 2019

Smart Watched
Wearable 3D Motion Trackers
Sports/Activity Trackers
Healthcare

Millions

Smart Glasses
Smart Clothing
Wearable Cameras

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Wheres the nearest dry cleaner? Whats open on a Sunday around here? Whats on
at the cinema this afternoon? You might not have cottoned on yet, but Voice-Activated
Search is on its way, and it will change the business landscape, impacting hugely on the
way users discover your content and how they interact with your brand. As a result this will
dramatically affect the way websites and apps are designed, developed, marketed and optimised. Voice activated search will affect every area of your organisation from marketing
and sales to IT, software design and development - and the big brands are already planning
for it.

18

WHAT IT MEANS?

WHAT TO DO?

Voice activated search will dramatically change

the world of SEO. Consumers will increasingly
use conversational voice search queries and
phrases to discover information on products
and services. This will mean that fewer people
use traditional typed keyword phrases into
search engines. As a result this will dramatically
affect the way websites and apps are designed,
developed, marketed and optimised.

Voice activated search is counter intuitive

but there are great gains for those who start
early. Consider an agency to get you started.

Your prospective customers will use VAS in an

attempt to discover your website and gather information about who you are.

Nows the time to start thinking about strategizing around development and marketing with
VAS in mind developers cant afford to ignore
it and your marketing team will have to significantly adapt their existing optimisation activities around this. It can be a tough nut to crack
but dont leave it so late that others get a foothold before you.

Immediacy and accessibility are two key benefits for users engaging with Wearable, mobile
and VAS.

VAS will be driven by the adoption of new forms of

Wearable technology, mobile and the IoT and will
change the way you need to think about interface
design and development. VAS requires radically
new thinking when compared to designing UI
for keyword search so youll need to think about
designing a UI that provides immediacy and accessibility for users making VAS commands.

VAS has been around on mobile for some time,

but Google has now started rolling it out to
desktops and laptops. The technology is not far
from mainstream and possesses far-reaching
implications for Brand Managers. In the nottoo-distant future, VAS will dramatically influence the way you produce content and the way
you optimise your website to rank highly via the

Keyword matching and search can deliver

huge amounts of data whereas voice search
queries will generate less data but more specific results. Semantic search will get better as
Google gathers data on how people use VAS
and help marketers to understand the intent of
each search you will need to study this data
to understand how and why your customers

19

search engines. Users of the technology will

create more precise search queries and become
less keyword driven.

make certain searches in relation to your product and build this in to your marketing strategy.

Search engines are already becoming less reliant on keywords and increasingly becoming
dependent on natural language questions. As
things naturally progress towards VAS, anyone involved with SEO or content marketing
will need to change their game fast. Traditional
typed search will over time diminish and your
business needs to be geared up for the changes.
There will be vast rewards for marketers who
can keep up to speed with the changes in search
behaviour.

Youll need to focus hard on producing content

that answers the consumers spoken word query and the buying/search context. Youll need
to focus less on keywords and more on understanding what the user really wants and serve
up content in order to address a specific problem.

So where do marketing and wearables meet? This new, augmented reality

creates a whole new challenge. But lets be clear, the most innovative, pioneering brands have been thinking about integration opportunities long
before you even dreamed about Google Glass.

Pauline Fyfe, Website Co-ordinator, GFI Max

CONCLUSION & KEY TAKEAWAYS

20

1. Mobile must be integrated into any business strategy and not treated as a
separate entity.
2. Develop and optimize content that can be measured across a wide range of
devices
3. Multi-screen takes mobile to a whole new level, and with it your entire marketing strategy.
4. When developing for mobile, clearly define your objectives along with deliverables, ensuring theyre aligned with your brand and vision
5. When it comes, Wearables will provide unparalleled insight into your customers minds. And while it wont happen overnight, Wearables will enter
mainstream.
6. Voice-Activated Search will redefine search as your customers use speech
to seek out your business offerings. This in turn will affect every area of
your business as you too have to redefine how you talk about your brand.

SO WHATS NEXT?

21

It should now be crystal clear that if your current strategy around mobile is
skirting around the basics think tactical reactions and first-gen activities
like duplicating your website for mobile, putting a BYOD policy in place, developing native apps - then cutting the mustard and planning for survival you are
not. And while theres nothing at all wrong with these basics, as a CEO, Software Development Manager or Brand/Marketing Manager, you must start to
look beyond questions like what to mobilize and what devices to design and
build your content around. Your eye now needs to be firmly on the bigger picture How can I use mobile to make my business work harder?, How can mobile
help me be more competitive in the market place?, How can I take advantage
of the new opportunities that mobile offers now, and that it will be offering in
the near future?, What do I need to do to innovate around mobile capabilities
in a way that gives my customers what they want and gives my business the
competitive advantage?.

Right now, embrace change better still, lead the change.

When all is said and done, to remain competitive, to survive, a robust long-term
mobile strategy that gets iterated often is non-negotiable. For the greatest
shot at success, ground your strategy in both technology and your goals, the
big data you gather around your target audience and of course your budget. Put
together a mobile roadmap and use what you can of your existing technology
to get projects moving and start delivering a consistent experience into your
mobile channel.

www.waracle.net