I was catching up, after first part of my summer vacation, with the news etc. in this hot office of ours and one story at MobiADNews really catched my mind: eBay’s releases sales figures via mobile phones..

Well, last year mobile phones were used to spend almost $2 BILLION at eBay!!! And not just to buy some cheap crap but real things, expensive things and I mean really expensive things. Items with the price tag of ten of thousands of dollars/pounds, even hundred thousands dollars/pounds, were bought via mobile phones!

Vehicles seems to be one of the top categories, together with the fashion, what people buy via their mobile phones. Ex. via eBay’s basic iPhone app 2000 (!) cars are sold EACH WEEK!!

Yeah, mobile commerce is NOT anymore business of selling ringtones or wallpapers… it’s a real deal, at least for the consumers but still so many (=most) retailers sit and wait… wake up!!! People are mobile, as well is the money!!!

It says simply that no product is ever perfect the first time around, and I think that applies not only to products but services, activities and actions, too. And if looking back, to one of the latest major changes in our lifes, communication and selling&marketing, web and web technologies/products/services are very good proof of that. We are still updating, upgrading and modifying those services and activities to better serve our customers and clients, to enable more sales and increase knowledge of brands.

As I yesterday blogged that mobile (internet) technology and services should be constant part of companies strategy, same rules applies to it than with “traditional” web based services: it won’t be perfect first time around. And that means its not just one-shot project but should be continuous process, the same way as happens with web. And oh yeah, do not even think that if you have learnt about web users that ALL same rules and learnings applies to mobile phone users.. you just will be wrong, so wrong..

Nowadays phones have all kind of nice features, tons of applications available, fast network connections and nicer internet browsers.. well, gotta say that sometimes using the new smartphones is not so straight forwarded as more “simple” phones..

Anyway, no more bitching about the use of the phones, but perhaps few words about the smartphones and utilizing them better: why to have internet browser if there’s no mobile phone optimized sites and services? Even the mobile phone networks are getting faster, its still f***ing irritating to try to use site which home page needs to download megs of data, and at the end most of that data cannot be seen and/or the site is just damn complicated and slow to use..

Or why to equip all fieldworkers with nice fancy phones when only practical use, beyond calling and texting, is perhaps email.. where nice mobile internet service or well connected mobile phone application could make field worker real mobile worker, having all the necessary data at hand..

All the statistics show increase in use of mobile data, sales of smartphones, more active use of mobile internet services but still… companies willing to serve customers, clients, their own employees are hesitating, too often thinking mobile activities being one-shot thing to do… NO! Mobile internet, via browser or applications, needs to be taken into an account more seriously, part of the strategy, the same way as “normal” internet. And that means thinking, work and budgets. And realisation of the strategy, better sooner than later.

Ok, enough about the ranting, you know where to call when wanna hear more ..

Statistics told the truth and Ziamond decided to move where their customers are: into the mobile space…

Well, statistics from our services are quite similar, except nowdays the peak time seems to start a bit later, around 19:00 and use of mobile internet services continues being high until around 22:00. This is especially clear when we look statistics of mobile video and audio use, aforementioned time span being clearly peak time.

These kind of statistics tells quite simple and clear story: mobile internet use is not anymore just done to fill somekind of gaps of the day, like when going to work or getting from it back home, but its own media (channel). Competing with TV, radio and “traditional” internet.

GfK’s research finds, too, that mobile web surfers visit 24 sites per day. Well, unfortunately, isn’t that all available mobile internet sites out there?… If your company wants to be 25th, just contact us and we’ll get you into mobile internet.

Leading Finnish ecommerce platform provider Smilehouse just released press release and results of their recent web shop research which lightly touches mobile shopping, too. Fourth of people participating in that research answered that they have used their mobile phones to buy products or services. Research does not tell, though, if that includes also SMS (Premium Text Message) purchases and/or account based (ie. where traditional invoicing is possible) purchases also or just debit/credit card purchases. Anyway, people are willing to buy and we are currently working on several cases to bring this possibility to mobile consumers. But bigger change needs change of the attitude, believing and understanding that consumer is the king and if s/he wants to use her/his mobile phone to buy stuff, better for the companies to listen…

So, listen me: I want to buy by using my mobile phone!!!!!

Average of 28 percent of the mobile consumers are expected to access mobile internet sites at least once a week. In UK the number is even quite much higher, 36%. News, weather and social networking were, naturally, the most interesting usage areas for mobile internet use but also maps and navigation are on the radar of the mobile phone consumers.

Fast load times and simple viewing & fast navigation were reported to be key factors for the succesful mobile internet sites.

Author of the study, MMA’s VP of Market Intelligence Peter A. Johnson commented “The survey results have shown that there is a clear and growing market opportunity for the mobile internet…”. I can’t agree more with his above comment as well as following one: “…To make the most of this opportunity, site owners and developers need to ensure their websites are well-designed for mobile, user-friendly and easily discoverable using mobile search engines.” Just like from my mouth, those wise words….

Well, I have been surprised how fast Android has ended up into people hands, especially this year. We have seen dramatic change in the mobile internet services and sites we do run. Last year random Android users has left their marks into sites’ log files but this year we have seen more and more people with Android phones surfing the sites we have delivered. And seems that those numbers are just increasing daily.

Interesting times we are having.. and as we do develop mobile phone applications to our clients, too, it will be interesting to see when this “I want iPhone app” will change into “I want Android app”.. and what will be overall thinking of supporting all mobile phone operating systems.. interesting times, interesting time indeed…

Forecast: Mobile Communications Device Open OS Sales to End Users by OS (Thousands of Units)

Source: Gartner (August 2010)

So, people are using their mobile phones, which are fast turning to be touch screen equipped smart phones, to access internet services. Still many companies are pondering what they should do with this kind of users and when some are taking some steps to serve their customers and clients, they are still too often taking the most easy path: just putting some static content online. Well, that’s a start but that also tells that companies are not thinking what the users really want or look. Mobile users are not passive users but willing to interact. Before rushing to set up simple static mobile site, please, take a look at this damn good presentation and get back to your desk to think a bit more how you can serve your clients and consumers better. And if in doubt, or when wanna see things moving as supposed, contact us and get your biz into mobile age!