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Not on mobile? Your business may be dead in 3 years!

Chetan Sharma just released a new Global Mobile State of the Union and made the following bold claim:

In 3-5 years, with few exceptions, if a company is not doing majority of its digital business on mobile, it is going to be irrelevant

Backing up his claim, Chetan makes some key observations:

  • Mobile is now 50% of the household IT budget, which includes spending items such as fixed line telephone, cable and internet
  • Mobile industry revenue is now 2% of Global GDP
  • Mobile data has been doubling every year since 2006 in the US, and globally there are now more than 50 operators with >$1bn in data revenue

Perhaps one of the best illustrations is when comparing the number of mobile units shipped with the number of computers shipped (in the US):

The report goes in depth on the data growth, pointing to that the roll out of 4G is the first time the network upgrade is driven by data demand.  It also details the influence of China and India in the mobile landscape, mobile operator strategies, and contains many words of wisdom on what the growth of mobile means. Although the claim made initially in this article are not necessarily substantiated other than with the growth numbers, anyone leading digital strategy in a company today should take a look at it.

Posted in The Business of Mobile.

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