RISMEDIA, April 20, 2010—Since the launch of the weekly column, “Monday Morning Mobile,” featured in RISMedia’s Today’s Real Estate Advisor e-newsletter, and the “Life in Mobile” column in Real Estate magazine, it seems like everything I see and read about in the news has to do with how important mobile technology is and will become to everything we do. Mobile’s rapid growth and overwhelming advances in technology are proof that we are now living in a mobile world.
An eye opener regarding how quickly the world is going mobile occurred this past February in Barcelona, Spain where the 2010 Mobile World Congress was hosted. In his keynote address, Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt stated that smartphone sales are growing 30% year over year and in three years (or less) smartphone sales will surpass global PC sales. He went on to add that mobile Web adoption is increasing eight times faster than it did 10 years ago on desktops, and there are more Google searches being made on mobile devices in emerging countries than on desktops. That sentiment is shared by U.S. financial giant Morgan Stanley in its recent Mobile Internet Report. The 424-page report was Morgan Stanley’s way of getting its thoughts and data out there to the world about what could be, “the biggest technology trend ever.”
With mobile technology on the forefront of people’s minds throughout the world, I thought it would be appropriate to look at five ways you can utilize and benefit from mobile in your everyday life.
1. Text to Win: Retailers, brands and advertisers everywhere are now running contests in which all you need to do to enter is send a text message. Gone are the days of fill-out forms and tear pads. Guinness Beer recently ran a contest in which bar-goers could rate their pint via text message and simultaneously enter to win a home pub!
2. Text for Info/Alerts: Instead of waiting to receive coupons in the mail/newspaper or searching for info online, now simply text in and instantly get information back on your phone and/or receive ongoing text alerts. In the real estate industry, mobile solution providers have programs that allow home buyers to text in and instantly receive property information while providing the listing agent with real time alerts.
3. Text to Donate: When tragedy strikes, as it did recently in Haiti, one of the quickest, most efficient ways to help is to donate. Mobile solution providers and carriers have teamed up to allow people to text in and donate to various relief efforts right on their phone. Donations are simply added to the user’s cell phone bill.
4. Event Mobile: Next time you’re traveling for business, check to see if your conference or golf trip has implemented a mobile program that allows you to receive text alerts about meetings, nightlife and prizes. Attendees always have their mobile devices handy making this the perfect way to communicate. For example, RISMedia has created a Mobile Website for its Leadership Conference this June. To see the conference’s Mobile Website, text the word Leaders to 88500 or go to http://risevent.mccid.com from your mobile device.
5. Mobile Internet: With mobile Web adoption growing at astronomical rates, businesses are quickly realizing that they must be able to provide clients and prospects the proper experience on the mobile phone. This can mean creating a mobile website that formats specifically for any and all mobile browsers or an application that can be downloaded to the phone and operates on the phone’s particular operating system.
Join us next month when we look at how living in a mobile world makes it a small world after all.
Seth Kaplan is president of Mobile Real Estate ID. For more information, please visit www.mobilerealestateid.com.
