What Apple Can Teach You About the Growth of Mobile

Apple unveiled its Q4 numbers today and they’re really interesting from an online marketing and digital strategy standpoint. I look at Apple sales because, unlike Android, we can easily compare multiple product lines (desktop computers vs. mobile) over the longer-term from a single company (no Android/Chrome and Windows manufacturers have made both desktop computers and phones running compatible operating systems over a long time period).

Trust me, the following stats have less to do with Apple and much more to do with your customers:

• iPhone sales grew 26 percent
• Mac sales fell 7 percent

Further, as TechCrunch notes:

“Even with only a couple of weeks of iPhone sales on the charts, it still accounted for 52 percent of Apple’s overall sales. The impact of the two new models, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, likely won’t be felt in full until Q1 2014.”

iPhones now account for 52% of Apple’s sales in dollars, despite the fact that they sell for about half of what Apple’s Mac computers make per unit.

Um… anyone else think mobile’s not really real now?

If you’re interested in learning more about the future of e-commerce and marketing via the social, local, mobile web, register to receive a special report I’ve produced in conjunction with hotel marketing firm Vizergy, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World.” While it’s targeted specifically at hotel and resort marketers, the lessons apply to just about any business. You can get your free copy of the report here.

You might also enjoy some of our past coverage of the social, local, mobile web and what it means for your business, including:

• 3 Key Trends for 2013
• 2013 trends: It’s all e-commerce (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest)
• Why E-commerce Keeps Growing. And Why it Still Will. Thinks Out Loud Episode 39
• The Zen of Digital Marketing Strategy
• Digital Marketing Strategy is About Information, Not Technology – Thinks Out Loud Episode 41
• The Myths of Mobile Marketing
• The future of real-world mobile commerce
• How to Take Charge of Your Distribution Strategy (Travel Tuesday)
• Is Amazon’s $1 billion in mobile sales enough to convince you?
• How Safe is Your Industry From Amazon?
• 4 Fundamental Truths About the Future of E-commerce
• What’s the Future of E-commerce? Look to the Past to Find Out