BII MOBILE INSIGHTS: Mobile Technology May Define The Future Of Healthcare

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Why Mobile Technology May Define The Future Of Healthcare (PwC)
The delivery of healthcare services through mobile devices, or mHealth, is fast becoming a global reality. As this stimulating video from PriceWaterhouseCoopers shows, the lower costs, immediacy and widespread availability of mobile technology are already starting to change the way patients receive their care, making healthcare faster, better and cheaper. In developing countries those very qualities are the reason why mHealth is already having an impact. There are, however, significant barriers to be overcome.

Click here to see the full report.

Mobile Becomes Major Shopping Player (MediaPost)
The abundance of holiday shopping data pouring in so far shows that mobile is playing a bigger role in e-commerce than last year. The share of traffic to retail sites on Black Friday rose to 24% from 14.3%, and the mobile share of sales hit 16%, up from 9.8% a year ago. Increased adoption of smartphones and tablets in the last year has been an influential factor in the m-commerce gains. Nielsen in September reported 55.5% of U.S. mobile subscribers had smartphones as of July, up from 41% a year earlier. Data from the Pew Research Center in October showed that tablet penetration had doubled to 22% from a year ago. And a growing share of mobile users are doing more activities on their phones. More than half (56%) use their phones to access the Web, up from 25% in 2008. The share of people downloading apps has doubled to 43% since 2009. The data all points to a larger addressable market for mobile sales and promotions during the holiday season.

Half Of People That Use Social Networks Do So From Mobile (Nielsen via The Next Web)
It is well acknowledged that mobile devices are changing the way that we go online, and this revolution is now seeing nearly half of the world’s social network users visit sites via their phones, according to research firm Nielsen, which says the trend is most prevalent in Asia Pacific.

According to the statistics from the company’s upcoming State of Social Media Report, 59% of social media users in APAC interact with Twitter, Facebook and other services directly from a mobile device. That’s notable, not just for passing the 50% threshold, but also because it is 12% higher than the global average and approaching double the 33% in Europe and the US.

The Cell Phone Isn't Just For Calls (Pew Research Center)
A whopping 85% of American adults own a cell phone and now use the devices to do much more than make phone calls. According to Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, here are some of the most popular activities:

cell phone activities

Over time, the number of cell owners performing each activity has grown.

Cell Phone Activity Growth

Clearly cell phones have become a portal for an ever-growing list of activities.

Mobile Is A Booming Business For PayPal (Mashable)
As we reported yesterday, it’s already been a good holiday season for PayPal. Speaking to a small group of reporters Monday afternoon, PayPal President David Marcus talked about Black Friday weekend, the company as a whole, and also shed light on what we can expect from PayPal in the future. "It’s been an amazing shopping weekend for us, especially on mobile," Marcus said. Mobile payments were up a whopping 196% on Cyber Monday. He said that PayPal is seeing an increasing number of consumers buying items with mobile, as well as pre-shopping for major purchases on their mobile devices. Not just limited to online anymore, PayPal is now available as an in-store payment option at over 17,000 locations worldwide, including Home Depot, Jamba Juice and Abercrombie and Fitch. In a crowded payment space, Marcus said he thinks PayPal will succeed precisely due to its combined in-store and online presence.

How Hybrid Apps Are Accelerating HTML5 Adoption (BI Intelligence)
There's a middle ground between HTML5 and native apps. They're called hybrid apps and they fuse the best of both approaches: The cost-effectiveness and flexibility of HTML5, along with the performance and distribution advantages of native apps. Hybrid apps help address HTML5's limitations, so that mobile developers can write in HTML5 without feeling they've shortchanged clients or end users. In fact, today most HTML5 deployment in mobile apps is occurring in hybrid apps. Pure HTML5 apps are still relatively rare birds. In this report, we'll look at the reasons why hybrid app development has taken off, and explore how hybrid approaches are shaping the app ecosystem's future.

Creating A Mobile Strategy: Reach Your Audience On the Go (Social Media Today)
If you haven’t created a mobile site yet your customers can only view your website probably when sitting down at their computer. Mobile browsing is about the user experience; giving your customers a good experience when visiting your site. Smartphone traffic will boost your overall sales. Become more accessible to your target audience and increase customer loyalty by being available whenever and wherever they want to access your site. Here are a few step in creating a mobile strategy.

Mobile SEO: Don’t be wordy; think short blog post headlines for your copy.
"Smart" Website Integration: If someone looks at your normal website on their phone, they should be automatically redirected to the mobile version.
Social Network Integration: Increase your social networking by promoting your social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and your blog.
Click-to-Call: With one click of a button it allows visitor to call or text a sales rep, customer service or even you immediately.
Lead Capture and Contact Us Forms: Create a simple easy form for visitors to sign up or download
Maps to your Place of Business: Make it easy for them to find your business by integrating maps to your location.

Smartphones are outselling home computers and by now you’ve noticed everywhere you go people are always on them. Allow your costumers to connect with your services on the go by creating a mobile strategy.

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