The use of connected mobile devices will surge 66% in the next five years. More people will connect via mobile digital device than with each other, as reported by a major data firm. This surge comes from a large global community which does more on devices and with apps than any other method of engagement. By 2017, the mobile user will watch 10 hours of video, enjoy 15 hours of music, make a video call 5 times and download at least 15 apps. In five years, mobile data traffic will outgrow global landline traffic by 3. If you think about it, it is only four years from now.

By The Year 2017

There will be more than 10 billion mobile-ready devices/connections, which includes 1.7 billion machine-to-machine connections.

Network speeds will increase to 3.0 Mbps.

Smartphones, laptops, and tablets will handle 93% of all global mobile traffic.

Forty-six percent of total mobile data traffic will be offloaded to a W-Fi network. 33% is now offloaded.

More users will use faster speed networks like 4G, than 2G or 3G.

Android phones will top iPhones in data use and consumption, as they are already ahead of the Apple baby.

Apps for All Phones
Developers are currently creating apps which will work on some smartphones and across platforms. This is good news for anyone with a RIM product or Android phone. It means that you can buy the phone you want and download that Android app you want. Keep in mind that businesses want apps to help customers locate them and maybe offer a coupon to drive revenue up. The hard part is finding a developer to write it for you. Apps are the low-hanging fruit of the mobile world. Once written, they are the treats users reach for which can do just about anything they want. The best ones will guide customers to a company and offer them something when they get there. But these come with a hefty price tag which most small business owners and franchisees do not have in their budgets.

The Changing Needs of Business
Businesses today are already on the move to take new technology into account and make the best use of it. The need to understand how mobile technology will work for them is a challenge and one which can be overcome. The rapid move to faster network speeds and more mobile connections is the way the world will communicate and practice business in the future. Click here to see one example. The early e-commerce sites on the internet, like Amazon, have already become more mobile for their customers and continue to implement better mobile digital practices to be sustainable in the future.