It is rather obvious that mobile devices have changed nearly every aspect of everyday life, but perhaps what has changed the most is the way that people use the internet to interact with one another and with various brands.
This is not surprising, considering that mobile internet usage now exceeds desktop internet usage. According to data from comScore, mobile devices accounted for over 55 percent of internet usage in the US in early 2014, while PCs clocked in at 45 percent. Most of the internet traffic from mobile devices came from apps, at 47 percent, while 8 percent of the traffic came from mobile browsers.
With 99.5 percent of smartphone and tablet owners using their devices to access web content and information, business owners, brand marketers, and other professionals have to embrace the web to reach their audience. Mobile innovations are leading businesses into new levels of productivity, connectivity, and discovery.
Here are a few ways smartphones are driving business:
1. Easier to get organized
New businesses often face certain unexpected challenges, like keeping track of correspondence and organizing documents and files. Fortunately, modern-day smartphones have superior capabilities that make it easier to organize and arrange everything in your life. With your smartphone, you can easily search and locate a specific email or obscure memo from months back, find the last time you communicated with a certain client, or perform any other retrieval fairly effortlessly. In other words, smartphones act as personal assistants, allowing you to keep things neatly organized, set reminders for deadlines, bills, or upcoming meetings, and do a lot more.
2. Streamlined communication
The most basic function of any mobile is to make and receive calls in real-time from any part in the world. However, smartphones are designed upon that, adding multiple layers of efficiency that make business communications more convenient than ever. In other words, you are not limited to simply voice calls with your smartphone. You can also send different media via text messages, cloud services, emails, web-based text apps, instant chat, social network chatting, video calls, and a lot more.
3. Greater flexibility
Mobile phones allow you to communicate from any point in the universe, provided you can get a signal. Additionally, smart phones are web-enabled and very portable, which means that you can move around with them conveniently and perform a variety of tasks on a smartphone without having to carry your laptop or stay tethered to a desktop. So, you can leave the office and still check your email, shop, do your taxes, read the news, and check critical financial information on the go or from any place with good service.
4. More accessible technology
Before smartphones became popular, businessmen and women relied on personal computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to conduct important tasks in the office and on the go, respectively. However, PDAs were sold at a very high price and many businesses could not afford them. In fact, PDAs were seen as more of status symbols for the upper levels of the business class as opposed to gadgets for making work easier. But as more companies started manufacturing smartphones, mobile technology became cheaper and more accessible to those who could not afford similar technology years ago.
5. Better networking
One of the key components for succeeding in today’s fast-paced world is creating and maintaining business relationships. This has become much easier with the advent of social media networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. With a smartphone, you can easily access these platforms via apps and effectively maintain conversations with your brand’s audience. Smartphones also make it easier to look up information about clients or acquaintances on-the-go before you meet them to develop conversation points that could help you establish rapport later on.
Final note
Another important function for mobile phones is their entertainment value. Today, developers have come up with amazing smartphone games that provide great on-demand stress relief, which can help businessmen and women relax when feeling stressed by the pressures and rigours of the business world. You can play a game, listen to music, watch a video clip on YouTube, or chat with friends after dealing with a grouchy client or a stressful meeting to calm down and keep our spirit up for the entire day.
