Trends 2016: The ever-rising growth of mobile

By Kenny Ye

The technological landscape is evolving faster than ever; yet, few things have had such a profound effect on the way we live, work, play and socialize as mobile devices. There is good reason that mobile demands so much of our mindshare. Mobile has already eclipsed desktop to become the primary screen for many people, becoming an integral part of our digital lifestyle. While we strived hard to keep up with this breakthroughs in 2015, the year 2016 will be no different, bringing in seismic shifts.

Mobile Search

Don’t be surprised to see big shifts in mobile search. UI specialists are still figuring out how we gesture, point, flick and tap on our devices. The current search interface is designed for typing and scrolling, a process built for computers, adapting that to the small screen will be the key. Also, with so much data available and so many past browsing habits to draw from, coming up with a page full of results is no longer going to cut it. It’s very likely we’ll see fully optimized, fine-tuned mobile search that enlists the help of third party apps to not just recommend a particular product, but find it in the customer’s preferred color, size, location, price range and much more.

Interactive, Intuitive Apps

With its ability to function as so many different tools, the mobile device is becoming more and more like a personal companion that is with us 24/7. Going forward, we will see more interactive, dynamic, data-driven, localised mobile apps. A not too distant future will bring in apps that allow users to experience objects, smell odors, and even taste.

M-Shopping with seamless integration

More and more customers are using mobile apps for surfing, ordering and transacting leading to e-tailers registering almost half of their revenue in m-commerce space. From Instagram’s ‘Shop Now’ to Pinterest’s ‘Buyable Pins’, platforms are today looking for ways to blur the lines between web, social, app and e-commerce. Mobile, social and e-commerce will become more integrated. As shopping online through smart phones becomes a game changer, industry leaders believe m-commerce could generate significant percent of their total revenue in the coming years.

Mobile Payments

Around the world, mobile payments are on the rise. Even though the growth has been slower than expected up until now, new stats indicate that millennials will drive the future of the mobile wallet. According to a 2015 Mitek and Zogby Analytics poll, three in five millennials already feel comfortable using mobile devices for exchanging money, both sending (61%) and receiving (63%). As more players join the race, companies will race to address concerns around data security. I expect this trend to take the mobile internet by storm in the coming quarters.

 360-degree videos

A Virtual Reality technology, 360° Video enables audiences to pan round the video inside a complete circle. It allows users to have complete control over what they want to view and from what angle. Users can re-watch the entire content again, each time from a different angle and never miss a single thing. Online shopping in developed markets is likely to get a complete overhaul with 360-Degree video and Live Video Streaming. Consumers will get a real-time perspective about the products they are going to buy.

(The author, Kenny Ye, is MD, UCWeb India)