M-commerce is growing at a very rapid pace as people tend to switch from computers to mobile phones. The fourth edition of the Generation Mobile conference, organised by NoNoobs and Antyweb, offered some insights into this phenomenon and its consequences.
This years’ edition of Generation Mobile, held on 19-20 May 2015 at Businessman Institute in Warsaw, focused on mobile payments, internet of things, m-commerce, advertisements and games. The keynote speech delivered by Markus Bokowsky, CEO and Co-Founder, Bokowsky + Laymann GmbH, was an excellent introduction to debates on the present and future trends in the mobile market. Mr. Bokowsky provided an overview of the top tech gadgets that can be managed by a smartphone. These included smartwatches, smartlocks, activity trackers, sleep trackers, as well as a bunch of health gadgets and apps, such as Gluco Dock, which measure blood sugar levels.
There is no doubt that the world is entering the mobile-first era. According to the data, nowadays people spend 5 hours a day in front of the computer and 2 hours on the phone with the latter growing at an enormous speed. There are more things in favour of mobile phones – users have the device with them all the time, and the smartphones themselves are top quality with the potential to become the only computer that people need in the near future.
All the participants of the conference, including, among others, Piotr Zimozlak, SW Research, Wojciech Czajkowski, PayU, Małgorzata Ciszecka, Visa, Andrzej Arendt, Product Manager at PayU, Michał Kwiatkowski, Audioteka and Zbigniew Nowicki, Managing Director, Bluerank agreed that these powerful forces will reshape the way many industries work. The trend can be visible now, especially when it comes to the banking sector, as people are getting used to fast and convenient one-click payments while purchasing things. A good example of that is the fact that those MyTaxi customers who use the app to purchase taxi services tend to travel three times more than the ones paying with cash, remarks Krzysztof Urban.
What will happen next? One thing is sure, people will stick to their phones even more. That is why mobile strategy should be the priority of every business. Visa and PayU are introducing new functionalities to simplify and speed shopping, companies from another sector should do the same to survive. Cryptocurrencies, iBeacons, mobile banks, face recognition, 3D printing – these are things of the future, says Markus Bokowsky, be ready for that.
Emma is a telecom engineer, fond of fantasy books and RPGs
