The world in your pocket
It’s a camera. A diary. A sat nav. A word processor. A games console. A wallet. A train ticket. A television. A boarding pass. A newspaper. A map. A video recorder. A calendar. A social media forum. A means to hail a cab. Oh, and a phone.
The mobile phone ranks not only as one of the most technologically advanced things as yet manufactured, but also as something which continues to fuel huge industrial, economic and social shifts. Over the past decade, the ways in which societies are using mobiles has mushroomed, and the pace of this change is hard to fathom. Old ways of digesting content, paying for goods, engaging with friends and contacts – all are being funnelled, increasingly, through our phones.
Facts about mobile phone usage are quite astounding. In most countries there are more mobile phones than people, with 7 billion overall worldwide. Looking at smart phones in particular, take-up is escalating – 88% of people in South Korea have one, for instance – while opportunities for further penetration are significant: just 17% of people in India have a smart phone (39% in Japan).
From a news and content perspective, many of us are now not only ‘reading’ the papers via our mobiles or tablets but, more than that, we’re selecting content on a ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ basis and building individualised content streams. This may mean merging mainstream channels – e.g., the BBC or FT – with more social ones – our LinkedIn contacts, for instance – to form something quite bespoke. This is, again, being driven by mobiles.
From a corporate PR and communications perspective, understanding this ongoing shift and the changing ways stakeholders are digesting content is, unsurprisingly, becoming an increasingly common part of the conversation. As the media itself optimises for mobiles, so is content and PR.
content, digital content, media, mobile, mobile content, mobile news, PR, tech