THE FUTURE IS MOBILE

Mankind has always wanted more. Mankind has always wanted speed. Many innovations in the history of human existence have been indicative of mankind’s subliminal/overt craving for ease and wealth creation. Many innovations have changed the course of history; the steam engine, electric bulb, electricity, radioactivity, polymer, telephone and the internet. The introduction of GSM, internet and many information technology tools have changed business models, organizational communication and created great companies, offering business as well as social services. Mobile phones and devices give the advantage of portability and convenience for movement. They offer the same speed desk devices such as the PC offer, maybe better in some cases. Globalization would not have a better ally than mobile devices, because they are the last in the race and lineage for offspring’s for human communication. Anything that would be created after smart phone's, feature phones and advanced feature phones would also be mobile and that’s the idea-making life easy and portable for mankind. The import of the pervasiveness and functionality of mobile phones is that services and businesses would be created and optimized around them. Mobile payments, internet banking, social networking and other emerging industries are customized along mobile lines to avert big bang disruption. The world currently has 6.8 billion mobile phones in a world of 7billion people. This implies a penetration of 128% in the developed world and 89% in developing countries according to ITU. The penetration of mobile phones in Nigeria according to the regulatory body for telecoms-NCC puts the figure at 78.8%. The NCC informs that a good number of Nigerians own more than one mobile phone. The leading network MTN has 45m subscribers, Airtel of India- 25m, Etisalat- 15m and indigenous Globacom- 28m.Many firms’ asides having regular websites now have mobile sites dedicated to serve mobile phone users. According to research, 69% of Nigerians access the internet through mobile phones. What business decision should this inform? I think advertising decisions. Many people spend at least 2hours on the internet and if most of them access through their phones, then brand managers and government in cases of e-governance should create strategically a mobile advertising budget to cater for this latest insights on mobile usage and pervasiveness. To ignore the potent regime of mobile advertising is to prepare for a loss of branding war. There are networks that have done well in Africa in mobile advertising in Africa. Inmobi and Twinpine have productive footprints in this area, but I hear Inmobi has left, leaving Twinpine. Globally, over 130 mobile money initiatives have been deployed. About 80% of that is in Africa. 31% off Kenya’s GDP moved through mobile money platforms. Total African mobile transfers are expected to exceed $200billion by 2015, accounting for approximately 18% for Africa’s GDP. Is the future mobile or not? The most notable of mobile innovation is in Kenya with their M-Pesa and M-Shwari. The smartphone industry in Nigeria is now worth 245bn dollars , that’s different from the regular mobile phones. The lifes of people now revolves around their mobile devices. Mobile devices have become a vital organ in humans, particularly people in Africa, since they had to leap frog other means of communication and embrace the mobile fad. Mobile devices such as tablets, Blackberry, Android, Nexus etc. have become things people build their emotions around and the means through which they conduct their lives. This calls for some computer mediated communication research. Lastly, the fundamental premise for this piece is to note that anything that is pervasive and makes life easy for mankind carries the day. The mobile devices are just the perfect fit for this description and the future of mankind would be determined by them. The future is mobile.