Tech trends in the mobile industry - interview with Robert Rachwal, Chief Organiser of the Mobile Trends Conference

Mobile technologies are conquering more industries - from entertainment to e-commerce to banking, and most users cannot imagine their lives without them. In connection with the next edition of the Mobile Trends Conference, we invited the chief of the event, Robert Rachwa?, to talk to Bart?omiej Lewandowski, Managing Partner NDS and a member of the Mobile Trends Awards Chapter, about the situation of the e-commerce sector in Poland.

Bartlomiej Lewandowski: How long have you been involved in the Mobile Trends project? Can you tell us more about the origins of this project?

Robert Rachwa?: The first edition of the Mobile Trends conference was organized in January 2012. I remember it very well because it was freezing weather at the time. It was -20 degrees outside. But I remember it not only because of the weather but also because of the emotions I felt at the time. We had to reschedule the date and venue of the conference due to the massive interest in the event. At the time, I had a Nokia E52 with Symbian. I was learning how to make websites for these devices. WAP pages. There were already people in Poland who had an iPhone 4. That was a thing. It was already clear at that time that the mobile phone market was going to change a lot and that smartphones would revolutionize the world. Such a conference about trends, marketing, and business was essential. About how to create apps, and how to design, promote or use them in marketing. And so it has been organized every year since then to this day.

Check out what the first edition of Mobile Trends looked like:

HERE

It was also then that we held the Mobile Trends Awards for the first time. As a matter of interest, we organized the first edition in our basement - literally. For example, we printed and cut the badges there ourselves. :-)

BL: I’m a member of the competition committee since 2015 so I can see how Mobile Trends has changed and evolved but could tell me how it looks from your perspective? What was the biggest challenge? Anything, in particular, flowed out of the development of the competition and the conference?

RR: The awards formula itself has changed slightly over this decade. The chapter and the categories in which the awards are presented have increased significantly. These are now being adapted from year to year to reflect changes in the market. Some sectors are already very well established in mobile and new applications are rarely developed. Others are just discovering this form of promotion or communication with the customer and are starting to develop new solutions. For example, commerce apps have developed a lot, which is why we created the category “Best commerce app - development” last year.

Incidents such as the pandemic or the Russian attack on Ukraine undoubtedly posed the greatest challenge - the entire market had to adapt to them.

Of the changes that I very much appreciate is the fact that now the entire competition chapter meets in person for deliberations. This allows us to exchange experiences live and select the best of the best. The discussions and deliberations that accompany the chapter also teach us a lot and give each of us a new knowledge and a picture of how the market is perceived.?

BL: Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about the future. What are your plans for Mobile Trends Conference and Mobile Trends Awards?

RR: This year we organized a special edition of the Conference. We have decided on up to 6 thematic paths so that everyone will find something for themselves. Importantly, this is only the second edition organized in Warsaw. We are certainly not giving up on Krakow, which is deep in the hearts of the organizers, but perhaps in the future, we will appear more often in other Polish cities.

The Mobile Trends Awards will not undergo a major revolution, as the competition evolves every year and there will probably be changes in its organization during this edition as well. We want it to be even more valuable for all the nominated companies, and the winners to feel that the award is truly prestigious. We will soon be holding a workshop with the jury, during which we will be working on improvements. At the moment, I cannot reveal any more details.

BL: All right, I'm also curious about what changes and news we'll be able to prepare for the Mobile Trends Awards attendees! Let's talk for a moment about the mobile industry itself - what are the current trends, and which way is it heading?

RR: The continuing trend is focused on social media. Not without reason. In Poland, according to Hootsuite, Facebook is used by 89% of people, Instagram by 61%, and Twitter by 38% of people. TikTok has 29% and LinkedIn is owned by 25% of Polish internet users. That's a pretty big field for marketing activity. Let's not forget YouTube, whose app scores (right after FB) more than 15h ATS rate, an unimaginable result for most app providers. Social commerce has knocked on YouTube's door thanks to Shopify, but we have previously seen this trend develop in apps from Meta or even Twitter.

But mobile is not just about social media. The market is now focusing on API development, m-commerce is booming and some apps are investing in clips, the necessary parts of an app to complete a process, without having to install the whole app. Mobile will look to gamify its customers in apps to provide more immersion. Greater awareness of UX will contribute to this, with more managers developing their design departments. Marketing automation will triumph, as omnichannel awareness grows. And more and more suppliers will be thinking about mobile portfolios, bringing them closer to the wallets of Millenials.?

BB: Everyone wants to develop mobile in their business, but do you think any sectors are investing the most in these solutions?

RR: The ones that invest the most are, of course, those that have money! So these are the banking and retail sectors.

At Mobile Trends for Experts, experts zoomed in on the form of Flutter technology, which is helping more and more teams create better and better applications. But it also seems interesting to base your systems on the cloud, containerization, and Kubernetes in banking. Let's not forget NFT or metaverses, which are still trying to conquer the world of finance.?

BB: Our business partners are increasingly betting on e-commerce solutions. We are getting more inquiries on this topic. It looks like the next few years in the mobile industry will belong to m-commerce.

When it comes to m-commerce, more and more people are noticing that technology has contributed strongly to the mix of the digital with the real world. Companies that take advantage of new habits and existing points of contact are seeing higher revenues. We are, of course, talking about omnichannel, but the Unified Experience that Outhorn, for example, is implementing seems to be an interesting prospect.?

It is not just the technology that matters, but the whole process that is created behind it. The mobile world today is not a tech-centric world but a customer-centric world. So we should put the weight of the question not on the modernity of the technology itself, but on the way the needs of the user are met. Companies that realize this will be on top