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Mobile commerce

The potential of 

mobile commerce

 (m-commerce) is evident from the predictions of Mary 

Meeker, an analyst at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers who shares her insights about the current 

state of the Internet in a presentation called Internet Trends (see the link to her insights at the 

end of this chapter). One of Meeker’s bravest predictions from 2008 was that mobile web use 

would surpass desktop web use by 2014, and this is currently on plan to occur at a global level.

The growth in popularity of 

mobile apps

 (Chapter 3), from the iPhone store, Google 

Android Play, Microsoft Windows app store and other handset vendors, is another significant 

development in mobile communications. Flurry (2013) released a summary of categories of app 

usage across smartphones and tablets and it showed that 80% of mobile time was in apps rather 

than the browser. You do have to be careful in interpreting this, though, since Facebook, games 

and utility apps will naturally have the greatest time spent and browser use is still significant.

 Location-  based use of mobile devices is another significant trend as users may use apps or 

browsers while shopping, for example. Related to this activity is  location-  based tracking of 

goods and inventory as they are manufactured and transported.