Over 10 billion mobile devices by 2016

They further predict that by 2016, this number will have risen to over 10 billion which is far above the human population and it looks set to keep on growing after that. According to predictions, the amount of data being carried by networks by this date will be 130 exabytes or 130 billion gigabytes of information. To put that number into context, in 1999 researchers from the University of Berkley estimated that if written down, the entirety of all human words ever spoken could be stored in only 5 exabytes.

Mobile service providers are already struggling to keep up with this huge level of data which is only set to increase as the technology progresses because smartphones and tablets are the main cause of this massive amount of transmitted data. On average a smartphone will use 150 megabytes of data each month (already tripled from 55MB in 2010), but his looks set to increase to a massive 2.6 gigabytes of data by 2016.

60% of users will become part of the gigabyte club

According to Suraj Shetty, vice president of products and solutions at Cisco “By 2016, 60% of mobile users – 3 billion people worldwide – will belong to the gigabyte club, each generating more than one gigabyte of mobile data traffic per month.”

There are several factors affecting this massive growth in data consumption among mobile users; the increasing popularity of smartphones and tablet computers has changed the way we use mobile devices and the amount of data we are accessing has increased because it relies on more data heavy formats such as streaming or downloading videos online; video traffic on mobile devices represented 52% of totally traffic in 2011.

Tablet use tripled in 2011

In 2011 tablet use tripled to over 34 million devices and each of these devices processes 3 times more data than a smartphone on average, marking a massive increase in mobile data consumption. Their data usage per month was around 517MB in 2011.

Another contributing factor is the network connections that are constantly getting faster and more efficient at transmitting large amounts of data. Fourth generation connections (4G) account for only 0.2% of all connections at the moment, but they are responsible for 6% of network traffic when it comes to data because they use 28 times more data than older connections.

As the number and sophistication of mobile devices steadily increases, network providers have to fight to keep up with the huge modern demand for high speed information.

What does this mean for you and your business?

What this means for you and your business is that having a mobile version of your website and a mobile app is absolutely vital. With the number of mobile devices increasing, and as a result the amount of time spent using such devices, it is now necessary to use this to your advantage, ensuring you have both a mobile app and a version of your website which displays well on smartphones.

SearchQuest offers both mobile websites and app design and development and can tailor these to your individual needs and requirements. Please do not hesitate to give us a call on 01524 382102 or fill in our contact form to speak to one of our advisors.

Many Business Owners Don’t See Full Potential Of Ecommerce – Why Not?

It seems as though many UK small business owners still do not see the full potential of ecommerce, and the possibilities it may open up for their company. At the end of the day, the majority of consumers (in both C2C and B2C markets) will now turn to a search engine as their first resource to find a product or service which they are looking for. If your business does not appear at the top of the search engines when those products or services relating to you are searched for, you are missing out on valuable enquiries and sales.

There’s Never Been A Better Time To Invest

There has never been a better time to invest in a functional ecommerce website, alongside a carefully planned SEO campaign to see your website appear at the top of the search engines. With ecommerce growing rapidly, despite high street sales suffering, if you are not currently utilising ecommerce for your business, ask yourself why not.

Put Yourself In Capable Hands

Please do not hesitate to give SearchQuest a call today on 01524 382102, or contact us here. As one of the UKs first internet marketing and SEO agencies, you can rest assured that you are in capable hands.

This survey showed that Ecommerce was the only part of industry to show considerable growth compared to last year’s figures. Many other areas of the market experienced large losses in sales despite the lucrative January sales period. 44% of retailers reported that their sales figures were down compared to January 2011 and 22% claimed that they had experienced some growth from last year, giving a balance of -22%.

Internet Orders up 50%

However, internet and mail-order retailers experienced a large rise in sales of 50%. This part of the market is nearly always showing exceptional growth; the incredible January sales figures pale in comparison to the 91% growth seen in December of this year. December was a good month for retail market growth this year compared to 2010. Grocers saw a growth of 52% compared to only 6% of growth this month.

The chief economic advisor of CBI, Ian McCafferty, said “Shoppers have reined in spending across the board” and he goes on to suggest a few reasons why this might be the case including a large number of consumers who took advantage of the early discounts before the New Year. He said that families in particular are “under continuing pressure with inflation still high and wage increases modest”.

The goods that performed the worst this January were durable household goods (-100%) and hardware and DIY (-81%). According to McCafferty “consumers are still holding off particularly from buying big ticket items like washing machines and fridges.”

E-Commerce stores have strong start to 2012

It has not been a particularly strong start of the year for any form of retail other than ecommerce. This fall was disappointing for high-street retailers but only marginally worse than expected (-18%) and firms expect annual sales volumes to continue to fall next month as well (-10%).

In recent years, 200million people annually discovered the internet for the first time. With the massively decreased price of smart phones it seems apparent that the era of the desktop PC is coming to an end when it comes to internet access. The study predicts that by 2016 80% of all internet users will be getting access through their phones.

Numbers that end with the word trillion become unimaginable and difficult to contextualise. So it is important to think that this whilst figure for the internet economy is larger than that of Italy’s total, it is only a fraction of the global total. In 2010 the internet was said to be responsible for $2.3 trillion dollars being pumped into the economies of the leading nations of the world, the G20, but this figure is only 4.1% of their collective economies.

But this is the fastest growing modern industry, particularly if these predictions turn out to be correct. It is because of the revolutionary way that the internet has affected society that BCG have outlined how we are entering a different era of ‘new internet’:

• Web access is no longer a luxury (the UN actually already declared it a human right)
• There will be shift to a larger number of web users in emerging markets and developing economies like China
• A consumer-retailer dialogue will be established and improved through social media

Everything in our lives is becoming more reliant on an internet connection as our lives adapt to be more ‘digital’. There has been a huge technological revolution that is still going on as many of the things around us such as cars, TVs and sensors become internet enabled; even to the extent that we have coined a new moniker – ‘smart houses’.

However, the managing director of BCG, David Dean said “During the research we discovered quickly that there is no approved way of measuring the internet economy.” This is a challenge when trying to estimate the value of the internet economy because there are many broad effects of the online revolution that are much harder to take figures for. It is fairly straight forward to acquire data about the revenue generated by purely internet based companies, or what online retail options have done for the sales of existing products. But it is extremely difficult to accurately measure the impact of the internet because of broader factors such as increased brand awareness through social media, or the efficient benefit of managers that are able to direct workforces remotely with smart phones.

This absolutely necessary but immeasurable tool for the economy has undeniably become an essential part of personal and professional life. David Dean sums it up best when he implied that discussing a movement into a “web economy” is just as ludicrous as talking about an “electricity economy”.

Revenues of €15.3bn

On a wider scale, the report also estimates that the revenue generated by Facebook for the 27 countries of the European Union is close to €15.3bn. Across the continent, Deloitte estimates that this work supports around 232,000 jobs making the careers available to those who work with Facebook almost a legitimate industry in itself.

The economic impact of Facebook can be separated into two different channels for generating revenue. There is the narrow impact of the company, involving such things as: Facebook’s taxes on its profit and the wages of their employees. This narrow impact equates for €210 million across the EU and approximately 3,200 jobs. However, this pales in comparison to the economic impact of the broad effect of the company which is responsible for a huge €15.1 billion of the total impact on the EU economy. This massive amount of revenue has been generated by the businesses that can increase their awareness with fan pages and adverts, the direct impact of increased sales of electronic devices to access the site, such as smart-phones, as well as revenue generated by products that exist solely on Facebook’s platform such as successful Apps like Farmville.

Investing in Small Business

Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said “[social media is] a bright spot in challenging times”. This reputation as a bright spot looks set to continue as Facebook shows its willingness to help small businesses grow by investing 4.2 million pounds of advertising credits to help 50,000 small businesses across Europe.

Director of Operations for British Chambers of Commerce, David Richards said “Small businesses are keen to learn how they can use Facebook to maximise growth, even in these difficult times”. With so much revenue and consumer interest being generated through social media, more companies are changing their business to have a more active online presence in the today’s market.