According to the results of a survey performed by Chetan Sharma Consulting, a Washington-based firm, this year, it is predicted that the leaders in mobile will be taking significant steps forward as they attempt to take the lead from the top mobile operating system, Android.
The predictions made from the data collected in the survey, called the “2012 Mobile Industry Predictions Survey”, were derived from the responses of about 150 industry insiders on the worldwide mailing list of the consulting firm. They also forecast that m-commerce and mobile payments will keep their position as a top focus for consumers and companies alike, adding further mobile considerations for retailers.
The survey’s respondents said that they believed that the top stories in 2012 will include the continued increase in global mobile data usage in first place, the entry of Amazon into the mobile environment as runner up, and the “resurgence” of Nokia and Microsoft as a close third.
The attraction carried by Amazon has a lot to do with the recent step that the company has taken into mobile computing with the release of its Kindle Fire tablet at the end of 2011. As it is only just making its first efforts into the industry, there is also believed to be significant room for it to grow, as well.
The general consensus seems to be that Amazon is taking the right type of focus, and has demonstrated a capability for integrating effectively with its web services. According to the research, the e-retailer’s extension into the tablet sector, and potentially into a smartphone sector sometime in the future, is only another element of its growth toward becoming a “super-retailer for everything”.
