Below you will find a presentation from Mary Meekers who is a leading authority in digital data, research and trends. There are the usual graphs telling us many things that are good to know but no longer surprising, and then there is the section on re-imagination. Mary captures in succinct fashion how our lives have changed over time and more importantly how our expectations have increased.
The digital landscape is shifting so fast - but isn't it exciting?
In the last 50 years we have re-imagined how we remember the past, how we connect with people and how we consume information. Even the simplest things, like how we take notes has changed. Many people no longer take a pen with them to meetings because they can take notes with their phone or dictate the minutes into a microphone. Scrapbooks have changed in a material way but I don’t think this has changed fundamentally while music has undergone a complete reinvention in how we buy, share, listen and idolise our musical heroes. Production of creative works including television and film has changed and has had an incredible impact on revenue and profits as well as publishing and distribution of talent.
But don’t take my word for it – check it out for yourself. There are over 50 categories that Mary has highlighted as being re-imagined. Flick through, it will make you smile and cringe and even cry when you think of all that we have lost and gained.
The data tells us that Apple mobile devices and applications are growing in the tens of thousands of percentages while Android is growing only in the hundreds. This brings a quiet smirk to my face when my friend Kurt tells me that Android is going to take over the world. I think Microsoft and windows and the like have had their hay-day, which is apparent in the data, but Android, while a much more viable competitor to Apple, is really just a poor cousin for those who want to remain different from the crowd. Normally I support this type of behaviour, not liking to follow the trends myself. But when something is of such superior quality and is for more efficient and pleasant to use, even I can’t find a good enough reason to boycott it.
The digital trend of eCommerce shows that currently only 8% of sales come from mobile devices in the USA. But as you can also see, tablets were only at 2% penetration 3 years ago but are now almost 30% penetration in America and Australia is taking up the tablet (iPad) even faster. This trend will continue to grow – I would like to know what eBay’s mobile sales are, I imagine they are seeing a much higher percentage of auctions won via their mobile app. I’ll have to dig that number out.
While we acknowledge that mobile traffic is starting to overtake desktop traffic, especially for search, this trend is not welcomed by all concerned. At present, revenue from mobile devices is made up of 71% from mobile app purchases and 29% from mobile advertising. The bad thing is that mobile advertising is cheaper than desktop online advertising (at least at the moment). There are also less advertisers in this space – but I’m sure that trend will change when the marketers and advertisers start to catch up with consumers (sheesh). At the moment this is having a big impact on Google’s revenue growth as they’re not able to monetise mobile as effectively as desktop search.