Mobile Phones + Millenials Equals Marketing Magic
I so wanted to call this post “A Game of Phones…” but I just couldn’t get the joke to work. Ah, well…
Anyway, the mobile phone is 40 years old today, which has set the Interwebs a buzzing.
But, if you want to be truly fair about it, the first commercial phone and network is slightly younger, making its debut 30 years ago this year. Now, here’s the funny thing about that 30th anniversary. It’s also the year most frequently cited as the start of the Millenial generation (aka Gen Y). That’s right. Both the mobile phone (in the commercial sense) and the generation most shaped by the Internet (so far) are now 30.
Now, I’ve noted in the past that more people own mobile phones than own toothbrushes and that today’s mobile phones pack as much power as a laptop did just a few short years ago. These two facts alone contribute to the huge, ongoing growth of mobile commerce.
But those numbers pale next to what mobile will do to sales in the longer run as the first generation never to have lived without mobile phones reach their 30’s and their peak purchasing power. In fact, imagine what the growth of mobile might have looked like without the economic downturn we’ve lived through over the last 4-5 years.
It’s no secret we’ve passed the mobile tipping point. And what happens next ought to be fun to watch.
Happy birthday, indeed.
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[…] Guests and passengers and travelers in general use mobile because it helps them accomplish their goals. Both research and my experience suggest that consumers no longer care about “channels” or, for that matter, devices. They’ll use whatever’s handy — desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile phone — to meet their needs. In fact, Pew notes that a growing number of people use their mobile phone as their primary means of accessing the Internet, bypassing the desktop altogether (while some of Pew’s research in this area refers primarily to teens, A. it’s also true many older demographics use “cell-mostly” internet, and B. Gen Y and Millennial demographic cohorts represent your customers in just a few years). […]