I'm so sick of people asking me about "The Year of the Mobile"

6 years ago today, I was lucky enough to launch a Mobile Solutions company officially in Australia. And whilst there were a few in the market already, a real focus in Mobile was sweeping through Australia. Internet traffic via smartphones was at just over 15% and it was a tough conversation with clients and agencies about the role, use and importance of mobile.

Fast forward to Dec 2014, when we saw smartphone sessions overtake those on desktop in Australia (Mary Meekers global prediction was 2015 – so Australia lead the way). That was almost 2 years ago.

At this stage, I thought that dreaded question would stop. By then iPhone was well and truly imbedded in Australian Society, with the leading app marketplace and Androids were on the rise to be the most shipped operating System.

Since then, over the 2 year period – We have seen the following:

?            29% Increase in Smartphone sessions

?            9% Increase in desktop sessions

?            12% Decline in Tablet usage (driven by bigger phones, and lightweight laptops)

But for me, the interesting story for me comes in the last 12 months… According to Nielsen - We have seen a 3% decline in digital sessions for the first time ever.

Looking at year on year Sep 2016 vs Sep 2015

?            Desktop = 5% decline in sessions

?            Smartphone = 5% increase in sessions (now being 63% of all sessions)

?            Tablet = 27% decline (account for only 10% of all digital sessions – was 12% in 2014)

With “mobile” now equating for 73% of ALL digital sessions.

I dug deeper to see if there was trend that was causing the decline in some areas and increases in other, especially given the Olympics and Election, and rise of social habits and publishers relying on social for content amplification – so I looked at Quarter numbers to flatter out any spikes. The data was almost exactly the same. (Desktop 6% decline, Smartphone 4% increase)

Now – I am not predicting the death of desktop here, not even close – but this is where I often start in trying to explain how important it is to get mobile right.

If the overall digital sessions of consumers are starting to stabilize and we aren’t seeing huge lotto figure growth figures as in previous years, the percentage of session on mobile are not only 73% currently but the only thing in growth – we need to get mobile right. And that’s before we even think outside to the media connection element of mobile, mcommerce and rise of mobile video.

It’s time to stop asking about the year of the mobile, it was ages ago – it’s time to move the conversation to where to with mobile next. Especially for Publishers, Agencies and Advertisers.

Mobile is the dominant screen for digital consumption, and the most personal device, it has the ability to change physical behavior (case and point in Pokémon), the ability to change consumption behavior (look at the rise of music streaming) more importantly it has the possibility to connect all media together like glue. It brings the promises of convergence of online and offline media and the ideals of interaction to all media.

As an industry, can we move on from “the year of the mobile” to perhaps the future of immersive advertising and true brand to consumer connection?