Whether or not this was because I’ve been involved in the business for many years and my expectations are guided by Wapple’s proficiency in this field, a recent poll conducted by Harris Interactive shows that I’m far from alone in this area.

According to the company, a whopping 84% of respondents have had trouble with completing mobile transactions with a further 43% saying that a negative experience would force them to abandon the transaction with nearly a fifth saying they would be more likely to buy from a competitor because of this.

This is real world data that completely replicates my recent experience. While this figure of 84% is undoubtedly going to change and let’s remember that 16% of Harris respondents WERE happy in their mobile shopping experience, this situation cannot last forever.

While we agree that 2011 has seen a climatic shift towards the mobile web and mobile commerce, retailers will have to raise their game and bring this 84% of customers into the fold. If so, there will be many Happy Christmases to come, if not it will be many Unhappy Years for both customers and retailers alike.

Over the past 15 years the internet has made this process an absolute dream… and to think there was once a time when online shopping was regarded as a fad. Fortunately, Amazon has set the standard and when the Advent calendars start to open the company prepares itself for the deluge of demands and deliveries.

This year everyone is expecting an unprecedented increase in Christmas sales to be via mobile, and there will be! Figures figures just coming in from the US show that mobile sales this Black Friday vs 2010 are up 254% and PayPal experienced a 516 per-cent year-over-year increase in global mobile payment volume. Paypal are set to be one of the winners this Christmas, along with Amazon, but many other retailers will miss a golden opportunity.

I very recently moved house and whilst waiting for BT to come and establish my broadband connection (20 days to be precise – arrrggghh) I was depending on my mobile for Christmas Shopping. But after hours of trying to browse PC websites I eventually gave up and went to Amazon mobile, disgusted that my time had been wasted when I had so much else to do.

Amazon on mobile is relatively easy. There are some minor user frustrations BUT it works, holds my payment details and offers one-click checkout. This is not a difficult model to replicate or even improve on yet so many mobile lazy retailers continue to let their consumers down.

Perhaps when Amazon releases its mobile figures at the start of 2012 its competitors will realise the opportunity they missed. The mobile web isn’t going away… but if companies don’t get mobile friendly, their customers will.

Last week’s acquisition of Mobile Interactive Group by Velti and the recent merger between iLoop Mobile and Lenco Mobile is testament to this. The market is converging and consolidating as the mobile web matures and larger organisations realise that it is critical to their businesses to be part of this Latest Frontier.

We expect this consolidation to continue as smartphone use increases and the mobile web becomes an integral part of businesses’ strategy.

Back in the early days we visualised how the mobile web would evolve so it is a joy to continue contributing to the growth and to watch it come into fruition.

We applaud Google’s initiative as it will encourage advertisers to raise their mobile game. Mobile ad networks serve billions of page views so this is a huge opportunity for their advertisers but often they waste this by linking their banner ad to their website, rather than a mobile optimised version.

We know from our research that a brand will see 80%+ bounce rate by serving their website to the mobile consumer so in essence each advertiser is simply burning their ad-spend unless they link the consumer to a mobile friendly experience. Mobile lazy brands are doing a disservice to the industry and, more importantly, to their consumers.

Google are a mobile friendly ad-network, as are Microsoft and Mocean Mobile whom we have teamed up with too.  We look forward to working with the rest of the mobile ad-networks to ensure they can maximise their advertisers’ spend.

What we loved: The homepage wasn’t too heavy despite the content so loaded on a range of mobile devices…BUT this site was designed for desktop not mobile!
What we’d love to see improved: Everything! At the moment Play are delivering their desktop website to all mobile devices meaning a lot of zooming in for content and zooming out for context – a classic example of mobile laziness! The site will frustrate the mobile consumer and they simply won’t stick around for all of the unnecessary content loading on all of the internal pages. Play would likely report significant increases in turnover just like Gap did if they mobilized their website with technology like Architect.

Go mobile and tell us what your experience of PLAY mobile is and cast your vote below… http://play.com

What we loved:The website is relatively uncluttered because of the nature of the service with great branding so it is not too badly presented to mobile devices but…
What we’d love to see improved: This is a desktop site!  118 is a huge directory service brand – they would benefit greatly from offering mobile-relevant experiences such as ‘Search near me’ and ‘click-to-call’.  The brand is perfect for mobile web and they must get way above average hits to this URL from mobile consumers currently but they simply are not maximising the opportunity.

Go mobile and tell us what your experience of 118 mobile is and cast your vote below… http://www.118.com/

Citing its new mobile commerce platfrom, targeted mobile ads and a GPS-based store locator, Gap told its investors that integrating mobile into its overall strategy is beginning to pay dividends (if you excuse the pun).

Gap’s innovative marketing campaign has also used TV via mobile to offer customers rewards when they check-in to their favourite TV shows and if we were an investor in the company, we would be absolutely delighted at Gap’s approach.

This is more evidence that strengthens our case on how to ‘do’ mobile. Gap’s attitude is spot-on and is enlightened because it is utilising all channels to give its customers a streamlined experience.

Whether its print, TV, ads or SMS, the story remains the same. Mobile should be represented across all marketng activities, both above, below and across the line, as Gap appear to be doing. Perhaps we should invest in them after all.

What we loved: Great design optimised across a broad range of devices with consistent style. Good usability and clickable links.
What we’d love to see improved: The site would benefit from a lighter load, 87.9kb is big and runs the risk of alienating consumers on older devices or pay as you go. Introducing some unique customer or location based experiences for customers would bring the mobile site alive for users and add to an otherwise great mobile experience.

Go mobile and tell us what your experience of FORD mobile is and cast your vote below… http://ford.com

Why bother with a mobile campaign during the Summer Holidays? There’s no point. Nobody will be engaged. Everybody will be switched off. But that’s where you’d be wrong. With research showing that websites are being accessed by between 10/20% on mobile devices (and rising fast), and users considering themselves ‘always-on’, the holiday season may be a great time to launch campaigns.



There can never be a better time to engage customers. Instead of wedged between meetings and commuting train carriages, they are now wedged between two trees on a hammock browsing the mobile web and open to the idea of anything.

Summer is here, the living is easy… and so are your potential customers.

The news of Mojiva’s funding was closely followed by the release of Google’s second-quarter earnings that rolled in at more than $9 billion, more than 32% up on 2011. According to many analysts, this rise in revenues was vindicated by the company’s $750 million purchase of AdMob as they cited Google’s mobile strategy as fundamental to the future of the company.

We are inclined to agree with these analysts. Google’s focus on mobile is allowing significant investment in companies such as Mojiva and other ad networks around the world. The ubiquity of smartphones and a mobile audience that is increasingly engaging with mobile and regards mobile advertising as integral to that experience augurs well for the sector.