Mobile technology has continued to cut a swath through the commercial world in 2009, with new forms of hardware and software making inroads into new forms of integration and interplay. The mobile phone itself, serving as the platform and point of origin for various forms of change and transformation, has undergone quite the evolution, with formerly clunky and chunky standard mobile units turning into streamlined, sleek mobile units packing the same amount of functionality and versatility, if not more. Music and video have both emerged as strong forms of mobile content, and the ever-evolving technological bases on the mobile phones themselves have allowed mobile manufacturers to tie up with the entertainment industry to forge a combined force of music releases on new media-optimized mobiles.
Among the many other innovations made by mobile phone companies in their quest to bring better mobile phone units is the creation of the smartphone, which runs off of more sophisticated software and even uses smaller applications and programs of various sorts. Various companies have, in turn, developed many different types of these “mobile apps” for all sorts of purposes. There are weather program apps that keep users up to date on weather conditions in areas they are set to visit, and there are business-related apps that keep users aware of the stock market or foreign exchange conditions and rates. On the lighter side there are also applications for downloading full music tracks and even creating ringtones from them, as well as apps that bring console video games to mobile phones.
However, this holiday season, it appears that the most popular software applications will be the ones that either allow users to shop online, or allow them to price-match, or help them hunt for the best deal, or all of the above. Online retailers have themselves undertaken the task of revamping their sites’ mobile interfaces, streamlining the shopping experience by helping shoppers make purchases without the extensive typing that is easier on a desktop than a mobile. Accounting and consulting firm Deloitte posits that one out of every five shoppers is likely to use their mobile phone to shop this season, and significant amounts of those shoppers would use the same mobile to research prices [45%], check out reviews or look for discount coupons or rebates [32%] and buy items [25%]. In a high-traffic season that arrives in the midst of economic recovery, retailers are scrambling to do what they can to either maximize or mitigate this trend.
Phones such as the Samsung Moment can run applications from eBay, ShopSavvy, RedLaser, ShopStyle, Retrevo, PriceGrabber and MyCoupons to help shoppers either locate stores with the items they want for less than other stores, or download coupons that could help cut the price down further. Deloitte US retail practice leader Stacy Janiak has called the situation “both an opportunity and a challenge” as retailers now have customers who can more easily “cross-shop” from right there in the store aisle. Through practices like these, video games that might cost $29.99 at, say, Walmart can be found at a nearby Target for $19.99, and a downloaded coupon can even help bring that down to $9.99 in quite literal minutes.
While mobile shopping isn’t perfect – Internet connections, variable veracity and timeliness of product or pricing data, and the like can be problematic – competition is nevertheless high, and the innovation afforded to shoppers by this new mobile trend is undeniable.
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