With the proliferation of mobile apps, smartphones, tablets and cloud computing the rules of engagement have changed.
No longer is it just sheer size and might, but ingenuity, access and consumer adoption.
Big brands now have to legitimately compete with the SME’s – who have suddenly achieved a level playing field with online access and equal potential to become a public star!
Take a look at some of these headlines:
Apple trumpets 15 billion App Store downloads – Computerworld
15 billion apps! And the app store has only been around for three years now. People ignored and then laughed at these predictions, now they say they knew all along.
So will there now be tens of trillions of transactions performed on trillions of apps in the next decade. Speaking of trillions of apps by 2020 is realistic, if you extend these predictions into the future…
IDC: App downloads to top 182.7 billion in 2015 – Mobile Business Briefing
Whether it’s a trillion by 2017 or by 2020 is probably the biggest question…but a trillion apps?, and the predictions are based on linear growth; which I believe will not be the case!
iOS Owners Buying 61% More Apps This Year, Paying Higher Prices – ReadWriteWeb
As people see the value in free mobile apps, they trade up to more and better usage apps. The skeptics will (still) tell you that there is no money to be made in apps, that apps were all a fad. Yet the revenues in the industry are exploding. And speaking of exploding revenue growth…
Analyst: Apps To Bring In $14 Billion Of Revenue Next Year – paidContent.org
Revenues to go from zero to $14 billion in a handful of years. What other market has shown that kind of revenue growth in the history of industry. Next the skeptics will say that revenues are already peaking…
App store revenues to hit $37bn by 2015 – Canalys – Total Telecom
This article points to a near tripling in revenue over the next four years which is @ NetSpeed in any ones language. (The $37 billion number may well turn out to be too conservative).
It’s not just apps though…there are lots of feeder companies to this industry that will see huge growth as they facilitate the growth of Smartphone/app/tablet/cloud future. What will this mean to economies around the world; and more importantly to global investment in the companies forging this trend?
Mobile Payments to Reach $633B by 2014 — GigaOM
These kinds of trends and numbers signal the new economies that will drive growth and jobs. The impact of all of this won’t just be felt by the companies driving this future like Apple, Google and even Microsoft, all of which I think are keystones in their respective ecosystems. However as change picks up at an ever increasing pace, individual enterprises and even discrete demand supply networks might not survive; but the complex web of relationships that exist between and among business ecosystems, will not only survive but they will flourish.
And the adaptable business enterprises, who can flex into this future, will be the ultimate winners; a bit like the natural evolution of species.
By 4, my son just can’t wait to get his hands on my iPhone, navigate his way through to photo accessories, start taking pics with various special designs, without any thought as to what he is doing. No appreciation of the tools, the endless programming, the amazing advances, the history of SLR’s and the fact that creating these sorts of effects, only a decade ago, required significant skill and training. Now, point, click, review, add effect – semi professional 4 year old abstract photography.
By seven, well my daughter is an old hand! Taking photos with special effects, whoopie! Now she’s asking can we post this to Facebook. I’m waiting for her to ask about creating her own social profile.
