Not so long ago owning a mobile phone was considered something of a luxury. People would marvel at them in the 1990s, pulling up the aerial and enjoying the novelty of using a phone without a cable. Now there are currently over 4.5 billion mobile phone users in the world, with the number set to continue rising close to 5 billion by 2020. This rapid rise in the number of mobile phones across the planet has had a big impact on many areas of life, including the world of business.
Changing Communication
First the emergence of mobile phones quickly made it possible for people to stay in almost constant contact with their colleagues. Whether they were at a client meeting, out in the field or working from home, this made bosses and employees contactable to help make important decisions and pass on important information in a much quicker manner.
Now that mobile phone technology and the internet has advanced even further, communication has improved leaps and bounds. Remote working is easily possible and the evolution of video calling through Facetime, Skype, WhatsApp and many other social media apps available on mobile has changed business communication for the better.
Managing Costs
There are now hundreds of thousands of apps available for mobile and a lot of these are aimed at helping businesses improve, grow and smooth out their processes. Many focus on looking after finances and costs. Apps that can be used by employees to track their expenses and others which can store and show outgoings for start-ups and be accessed anywhere eon mobile are incredibly helpful.
For other costs such as electricity, the likes of Utilitywise offer an online portal for storing bill information and energy usage that can be accessed through mobile browsers. This improves cost management, making everything more transparent and easily accessible.
App Development
In 2018 the mobile app industry celebrated its tenth birthday. Over that time there have been billions of apps developed, uploaded and downloaded, from games to health and fitness apps and so many more. In 2017 alone, there were around 197 billion app downloads.
This offers a massive opportunity for every business to develop its own app, whatever industry it is in, to keep up with the market. The main way most customers will try to get in touch is through their phones so having an app to use makes it incredibly easy.
As mobile phones continue to increase in usage and develop to do more things, businesses will keep adapting in relation to them.