When will mobile become ordinary?
I’d argue that it’s already happening, based on new numbers from Flurry, the mobile analytics provider, that reveal how people used smartphones and tablets over last week’s Thanksgiving holiday.
Flurry CEO Simon Khalaf and I will be discussing this trend and others on Wednesday, December 11, at ReadWriteMix, our evening interview series held at Say Space in San Francisco.
See also: Capturing The Mobile Moment
To hold you over until then, here’s a look at how mobile usage changed from the week before Thanksgiving to the week of Thanksgiving, based on app activity across Flurry’s network.
Chart by Flurry
Shopping Spreads Out
One key result is a much less dramatic spike in shopping usage. In 2012, mobile shopping was a novelty for most consumers. Now, smartphone adoption is higher, and consumers who may have downloaded a retailer’s app to grab a special discount last year are now returning. And they are shopping throughout the interstices of their days—including the downtime of a holiday like Thanksgiving—rather than waiting for special sale days like Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
The whole notion of Cyber Monday seems outdated. It was based on the notion that people did most of their online shopping from their work computers, where they had high-speed Internet connections. Now mobile broadband is nearly ubiquitous. There’s no reason to wait for Monday to get a deal.
This is about more than just e-commerce. The maturation of mobile usage is as profound a trend as its early surge of adoption. As consumers shift more and more of their time to mobile, and use it for a wider range of tasks, we’ll have to rethink how we deliver connected experiences.
Flurry’s Khalaf has been tracking the changing landscape of mobile since its earliest days, which makes him an ideal person for me to quiz on what’s coming next.
Sign up: ReadWriteMix: Unlocking The Secrets Of Mobile With Simon Khalaf
Space is limited. Please reserve your place, and join us on December 11!
(Note: I’m also planning our ReadWriteMix event calendar for 2014. If you’d like to propose a speaker, please get in touch with me.)
Sign up on Eventbrite for ReadWriteMix, an evening of drinks and conversation at Say Space in San Francisco, hosted by ReadWrite editor-in-chief Owen Thomas.
