Holiday shopping statistics and prominence of file sync and share drive interest
Believe it or not, a strong indicator of mobility’s future came from a surprising place this year: holiday shopping statistics. Many experts called 2014 “the year e-commerce figured out mobile,” and the following statistics certainly bear that out. But those numbers are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to 2015’s most promising mobility trends:
- 33% of Thanksgiving Day sales came from mobile devices, as did 52% of all online shopping traffic.
- Mobile drove 50% of all Black Friday shopping traffic, up from 40% last year.
- Mobile sales accounted for 28% of all Black Friday online sales, up from 22% last year.
- 41% of Cyber Monday traffic came from mobile devices, up from 30% in 2013.
- 22% of all Cyber Monday sales came from mobile devices.
- 46% of Cyber Monday emails were opened on mobile devices.
These numbers reinforce survey results from a January 2014 Pew Research Internet Project study:
- 90% of North American adults have a cell phone
- 58% have a smartphone
- 32% have an e-reader
- 42% have a tablet
In the business realm, CompTIA’s 3rd Annual Trends in Enterprise Mobility study released in June found that:
- 70% of companies surveyed had invested some resources in mobility solutions
- 76% of those organizations handed out smartphones
- 61% handed out tablets.
- Yet only 30% had mobility policies on record
- and only 8% could point out significant workflow benefits derived from mobile device use.
So what are the big trends for 2015?
Electronic file sync and share (EFSS) leads the way — industry research group Gartner bumped its assessment of the EFSS market up from “emerging” to “established,” causing a flurry of interest in enterprise file sync and share solutions.
Gartner also says enterprise mobile management (or EMM) will continue to evolve. This is another area of interest for the small to medium-sized business market. EMM describes the future evolution and convergence of mobile management, security, and support technologies.
Other consumer-based trends include app development, HTML5 support, advanced user experience design, high precision location sensing, wearable devices, new wi-fi standards, mobile-connected smart objects, LTE and LTE-A cellular network enhancements, and metrics and monitoring.
CMIT Solutions strives to stay on the leading edge of the mobile marketplace so that we can anticipate and meet the needs of our clients. Our approach to small and medium sized businesses is evolving to consider the number of devices used by each employee — not just the number of computers in an office.
If you have questions about mobility and how it can affect your business, contact us today. We specialize in a combination of intimate local service and proactive IT solutions that make technology work for your business, not against it.