The School of Mobile Vol. 2 - The Detail Chapter 4 - Preparing to invest in Mobile
4.2 Addressing the arguments against mobile
- Playing the Devil’s Advocate
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1. Mobile is nothing more than a craze, look at the disorderly
Apple App Store and the fact that the mobile web does not
work on 90% of devices properly. It will all fade to nothing,
again. This is not where travel should be focusing and my
boss will never buy into it
There is no denying that the mobile industry has been guilty
of hubris, hyperbole and the now almost laughable fact that
every year since 2001 has been declared to be ‘The year
of mobile.’ As has been demonstrated through the case
studies however, a number of factors, market dynamics and
indeed social changes have come about that have begun to substan�ate some of the hype and
the ini�ally unwarranted promises and predic�ons. Now though, the influence and importance
of mobile is implicit in the fact that it is able to poten�ally impact every stage of the travel
buying cycle in unique and exci�ng ways. There are many examples of how not to get involved
in mobile, in wasted investments and high expecta�ons brutally let down. But with the user
experience forever changed via the iPhone, with the introduc�on of be�er and faster handsets,
with the imminence of 4G to take things to the next level, with people actually using their
mobile phones to browse the internet and with a mobile revolu�on occurring in corporate
travel, Mobile is here to stay. There are s�ll deep flaws and many ways to go wrong but when
you strip it back to its core value proposi�on and think about mobile in terms of your business
and your customers, there is a business case and the �me for mobile really is now.
2. Such a small minority of my customers have smart phones that anything I do on Mobile will
be a waste of �me
This may well prove to be a problem with par�cularly advanced offerings but it is important to
remember how much can be offered and achieved with the humble SMS, whether it be short
code mobile marke�ng, text alerts and no�fica�ons for customer service, a text based mobile
concierge service, vouchers sent by SMS and it is even possible to have payments through a
text-based SMS system that u�lises IVR. The rate of smartphone penetra�on is increasing and
even at the bo�om-end of the market, handset features are pre�y impressive. The �me to
engage in mobile may be now for you as there are a number of customer use cases revealed.
Otherwise, your customers will move so far ahead of you that you may struggle to catch up and
lose out to be�er prepared compe�tors.
3. Pla�orms, opera�ng systems and devices are so fragmented that anything I do will never
reach more than a small percentage of my customers
There is no doubt that this is a significant concern and it is not one that is likely to go away in the
short term. One of the most confusing things about the mobile market is conflic�ng signals of
consolida�on and fragmenta�on, all the while happening under the umbrella of convergence.
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