As consumer adoption speeds ahead, and mobile professionals rush to provide solutions, these activities will increase driven by three major forces:

1. Mobile-savvy Gen Xers and Gen Yers will become the more active mobile customers
2. Smartphones and tablets will continue to move mainstream
3. Emerging markets will swell the ranks of mobile consumers

Here at @_BottleRocket, we’re seeing dramatic growth of the mobile apps channel in four industries:

• Travel and Hospitality:  Mobile devices and travelers are a logical fit. The travel industry has been quick to adopt the mobile space and eager to develop native mobile apps.  The razor-thin product margins mean that travel companies seek any opportunity they can to engage customers directly, resulting in advanced mobile offerings like the American Airlines’ flight check-in app.  Plus, the on-the-go and immediate nature of travel and hospitality activities, along with the high level of tech comfort among most business and leisure travelers, make the mobile channel an obvious industry that will grow the mobile space.  More than 11% of U. S. online adults have downloaded a travel-related mobile app such as TripAdvisor or TripIt for the iPhone and iPad.*
• Retail:  Product research trumps sales… today. While few customers make mobile product purchases today, mobile devices offer them the ability to research purchases while in a store and also receive targeted promotions in those stores.  While today, the offline-influenced opportunity is larger than direct mobile commerce, signs ahead foretell of a mobile market that will take off in the next two years.  In Europe, 16% of online buyers have already used their mobile phone for a shopping-related activity.  In the U. S., 13% of online adults with a smartphone have used a mobile device to purchase a product without speaking to anyone.*  In addition, 29% of U. S. mobile shopper say they’ve spent $100 or more in the past year via the mobile channel compared to the average amount spent in 2010 which was $62.
• Financial Services:  Mobile banking will displace online banking. Because smartphone apps let customers perform simple tasks more quickly and easily than on a PC, mobile banking will displace online banking for routine transactions and interactions.*  In the U. S., the number of mobile banking customers will pass the 50 million mark by 2015.  Today, 18% of online Europeans use any type of mobile banking, compared with only 13% a year ago.  In addition, mobile investing and stock trading is on the rise with 11% of U. S. online adults with an investment account are now mobile investors.
• Healthcare:  Plans move forward despite low consumer interest. As U. S. healthcare reform takes hold, more customers will interact and transact directly with self-service channels like mobile, and we see both health plans and healthcare providers beginning to develop mobile apps to help educate customers, control costs, provide better customer care, and drive sales.  The complexity of health plan selection and management will mean that consumers adopt mobile healthcare activities at a much slower rate than travel or retail apps, but information-hungry customers will drive the creation of these apps on mobile platforms.

Mobile offers three benefits over other channels– simplicity, immediacy, and context.  Using these benefits to create marketing, selling and support capabilities that allow customers to gather buying information and eventually make purchases on the mobile device is simply a continuation of the eCommerce evolution.

* Source:  Forrester Research