What mobile adoption means for brands

Kristina: We've seen a rapid adoption rate for tablets and mobile devices since Kindle's Fire came out - are we at the tipping point for mobile consumption?

John Kottcamp, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer, Tahzoo: The vast majority of cell phone uses worldwide do not have smartphones and more importantly do not have access to wireless broadband speeds which empower the sort of smart phone proliferation we've seen in the United States over the last of two. The tablet market will evolve and grow at the same time. At this point you've got 3", 4" smartphones, 7" Kindles, Nooks and other e-readers. Rumors are that Apple will enter that size market as well later this year. And then you have the real tablets, led by iPad, but I wouldn't count out Android and perhaps even Microsoft's Surface can make a run at it this Fall.

Kristina: As people become accustomed to reading or watching content via mobile, how will brands need to adapt and innovate the marketplace?

John: Similar to what I said above, the biggest thing brands need to understand is that there are significant differences in the experience on a smartphone versus a tablet and companies will need to design experience that fit not only those differences, but also understand and deliver experiences that are in line with the use patterns of their customers. For example, we were working with a large non-profit helping women with cancer. Upon conducting a lot of user experience research, it was discovered that the type of content searched for and consumed was quite different on smart phones than on tablets. Tablets were being used to research the topic, look for support, forums, communities as well as evaluate potential purchases to accommodate special needs. Whereas the smart phone queries tended to be more direct in nature. Imagine a woman just walking out of the doctor's office after having been diagnosed with breast cancer. Her search was more likely on topics of immediate concern, like looking up the actual disease, looking up mortality statistics, looking for all the data that would rush into someone's brain after an immediate reaction. Something that couldn't wait until they got home and curled up in a big chair with the tablet.

More from Tahzoo and Kottcamp on Monday as he delves into the differences between relevant and personalized content.

Tags: mobile adoption rates, mobile marketing, mobile trends, Tahzoo