Mobile market usage trends: what you need to know

2007. The year Apple introduced the iPhone to the world. (2007 seems like a million years ago, right?)

InMobi recognized the writing on the screens, and the company’s founders started that same year with the intent to grow alongside mobile market technology trends at inevitable breakneck speeds, and emerge a leader in the mobile intelligence space.

InMobi’s growth and expansion is enormous, and they are a powerhouse in mobile technology, as the world’s leading marketing cloud.

Supriya Goswami, VP & Global Head of Marketing for InMobi has seen a thing or two. Coming from HR, she has a refreshing passion for the psychology of individuals that informs her marketing leadership style.

Supriya brings a high level of global thought leadership to the table as she joins us to discuss:

• A recent round of interesting analytics that has emerged out of the COVID environment.
• Micro and macro mobile usage trends.
• How mobile users in the US differ from users in Asia.
• What US companies can learn from Asian companies that are ahead in the mobile marketing cycle.

Time for the mobile market to shine even brighter

This is a crazy time for everyone.

No matter your specialty or focus, we’ve all been impacted in some way.

Covid-19 is putting industry as a whole on display—with certain industries pushed to the front lines, and others (some who have been used to VIP status) forced to sit and watch things unfold from the cheap seats.

Marketing budgets are turned upside down.

CMOs and marketers down the line are all rethinking strategies, embracing new things, and really leaning into thinking on their feet.

Some have had rug pulled ruthlessly out from under them, like hospitality and travel.

Others are poised to step in and really show their mettle.

LIke mobile technology.

The mass grounding of air traffic, border closures, and shelter-in-place policies made the mobile tech industry more of a focus, and, more of a necessity than ever.

So, what have companies like InMobi seen trend-wise so far?

2020 Mobile market trends

It’s not just the business sector that has had to adapt and pivot.

The private sector has had to adjust to a more autonomous, somewhat stagnant lifestyle. Things like grocery runs, clothes shopping, and the way people entertain themselves have all turned inward. Not surprisingly, people are taking to their phones more than ever.

Macro trends

Americans are spending more time on mobile devices than they are watching television.
Mobile is no longer the “second screen.”

Mobile devices have been overtaking desktops and laptops as the primary screen since 2018, but the current state of things has certainly fueled that fire.

Statistics from Supriya’s team show:

Look out boob-tube, mobile is coming for you.

Micro trends

Entertainment

Streaming services are clearly having a big moment.

Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and the rest are all clamoring for eyes on their screens.

So some have launched projects early. ESPN rushed out its Michael Jordan documentary, “The Last Dance.” While Amazon Prime is experimenting with new ways to deliver impacted in-person events like their spur-of-the-moment partnership with the SXSW film festival.

Mobile usage is skyrocketing in this space as well. App installs in the entertainment category are up by almost 50%

The QSR sector

Americans love their fast food And under these circumstances—stuck home for no one knows how long—that showed up in the analytics as spikes in QSR app downloads in the first week of March as people retreated into quarantine.

This trend shows no signs of decline either, as QSR companies shore up their mobile strategies and dig into their takeout and delivery models.

Mobile gaming

“One trend that we definitely see is, compared to mobile gamers in January and February, people downloading game and gaming apps in March are much more likely to be female.”- Supriya Goswami

Supriya also points to a huge spike in daily Apple installs in March and April among publishers like Zynga and EA Active.

Her team’s surveys revealed that people are gaming 40% more now that Covid is in play. How will marketers adapt to create a strategy heavily weighted in mobile? Especially when in the past, women, for example, weren’t a category traditionally reached by gaming.

Mobile technology in a B2B environment

Traditional B2B marketing is out the window right now.

In-person events, ads in public spaces, sports and entertainment partnerships—everything’s tossed out for now.

Content is king, digital events are evolving as we speak. And partner marketing is being restructured in ways that would’ve seemed off the reservation 6 months ago.

Which gives podcasting, webinars, video, organizations an opportunity to tap into new things never-before considered.

Mobile commerce, mobile entertainment—mobile everything—is becoming the norm, and the mobile technology market is right there waiting for them.

This post was based on an episode of The Data-Driven Marketer podcast featuring Supriya Goswami.

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