A recent study shows how reliant small businesses have become on mobile technology. The 2013 AT&T Small Business Technology Poll says 85 percent of small businesses now use some kind of smartphone. And 80 percent of small firms founded less than two years ago use tablets, the survey also showed.
Uyen Nguyen owner of Lemongrass Truck, a growing food truck business, reckons her budding company would be nowhere at all without mobile technology. Her company uses tablets to take credit card payments at points of sales and uses social media to let mobile customers know where their truck will be located from day to day. Mobile technology makes sense to Nguyen because her whole business is mobile.
Zoe Maldonado, blogger at TechBreach, writes about the tools of the modern sales force. These include smartphones, PDAs, laptops and tablets. Smartphones and tablets provide mobile sales teams with constant communications and productivity tools including email, internet scheduling and calendars. Mobile business applications allow teams to do presentations, engage in social collaboration and even prepare invoices.
Online marketing and SEO consultant Peter Semple gives two case studies showing how small businesses can do this. In one instance, a savvy auto mechanic sent out a direct mail piece with a QR code allowing customers to download his mobile app. In another, a local promotional clothing company offers customers a protective sleeve for wireless credit cards. On the sleeve is printed a QR code to the company’s mobile store.
Companies like T-Mobile have begun offering cloud-based services for mobile customers, including telephony features like voicemail, CallerID, conference bridges and more. Increasingly, these services will now be available for the small business market, too. This latest package is aimed at companies with 20 or fewer employees.
Boil it all down and the real benefit of mobile technology is agility and efficiency. Sam Frymer, founder of personal consulting firm the Awesomeness Institute, points to the time you save sharing information instantly via email, social media, or other electronic documents from no matter where you are. Add to this eliminating paper from your world completely and you can begin to see the increased efficiency and decreased costs.
A study by email marketing company Constant Contact finds small businesses are using mobile apps for a host of management activities. The study found small businesses most often used apps for activities like scheduling and time management, customer communications, GPS and mapping and accounting and invoicing.
There’s at least one other small business task you can complete using mobile apps, though it’s a task that didn’t show up on the list of popular activities in the Constant Contact study. Small businesses can use mobile apps to do their banking too. Check out the latest feature on Jot, a mobile app Chase provides its business customers.
Mobile video apps aren’t limited to Vine, the 6-second looping video app Twitter acquired while still in development and launched a few months ago. There are also apps like Tout and Viddy. Amy Nedoss, strategic direction and business development leader for OurHelix, takes us through some of the basic differences between these apps and then gives us an overview of what businesses can do with each.
Your website should be easy for mobile users to view. One way to accomplish this is to simplify your web design so it is easier to view on a smaller screen like the one on a smartphone. Another is to create a special mobile version of your site designed specifically with mobile visitors in mind.
When looking into creating a mobile friendly website, one term that keeps coming up is “responsive design.” Simply put, this means creating a website that is not designed for a specific format. Instead, this kind of website resizes itself based upon the screen of the device upon which it is being viewed. In practice, this may be the most versatile solution for the issue of making your site friendly to mobile users.
Have we missed something? Tell us how you’re using mobile technology to improve your business today.
EE, the U.K.’s first and still only 4G network operator, has broken out 4G-specific customer numbers for the first time — confirming that after five months of 4G trading it has hit a total of 318,000 4G-specific customers out of a total of 13.7 million postpaid mobile subscribers in the quarter (so around 2.3% of its postpaid mobile customers are on 4G). The 4G figure was broken out in EE’s Q1 results which ended March 31. The carrier has previously reported total postpaid 3G and 4G additions for its Q4 quarter, when it said it saw 201,000 net gains in the quarter. Overall EE has a mobile & fixed line broadband subscriber base of 26.4 million.
It’s worth underlining that the 318,000 figure does not consist of only new customers joining EE but includes existing 3G customers who have upgraded to its 4G offering. In its Q1 results release today, EE said ”strong take-up of 4G services amongst new and existing customers validates our data monetisation strategy”, noting that it is continuing to “successfully migrate Orange and T-Mobile customers with 4G-ready phones to high value EE 4G price plans in areas where 4G coverage is available”.
It added that it is “firmly on track” to meet its target of more than one million 4G customers by the end of 2013 — a target that is arguably rather unambitious, as IHS Screen Digest analyst Daniel Gleeson noted on Twitter.
EE reported postpaid mobile net adds of 166,000 for its Q1. The quarter is traditionally a weaker one for the carrier to add new customers but EE noted that Q1 2013 outperformed its past two year-on-year Q1 quarters, which saw 150,000 and 160,000 net postpaid adds respectively:
EE also said growth in underlying ARPU (average revenue per user) was up 2.2% year-on-year, while non-messaging data revenue increased to 36% of ARPU (vs 27% in the year ago quarter). In the quarter, the percentage of its postpaid customers using a smartphone rose a high of 82%, up from 78% in the previous quarter and 71% in the year-ago quarter. Driving and monetising data usage is key for carriers as traditional voice & messaging revenues continue to decline.
Commenting on the results in a statement, EE’s Chief Financial Officer, Neal Milsom, said: “Today’s results are in-line with our expectations, and we are making good progress focusing on high value segments. We’re announcing 318,000 4G customers after just five months of trading, strong postpaid net adds and continued growth in our underlying average revenue per user. We expect to strengthen our industry leadership position in the year ahead as the 4G roll out continues and we introduce double-speed 4GEE.”
EE said it continues to see “strong demand” for 4G from U.K. businesses, noting that more than 1,600 are now using LTE including NG Bailey, PA News, Reed Recruitment, RAC, Tate & Lyle and United Utilities.
Regarding its 4G rollout, EE said its LTE network is on track to reach more than 70% of the U.K.’s population by the end of 2013, and 98% by the end of 2014. Last month EE announced its 4G network was now within reach of 50% of the population. The carrier is not blanketing all the cities and towns it names in its rollout with 4G coverage, but is switching on specific postcode areas in order to initially cover 80% of the centre of the city or town — counting only those postcode areas towards its overall population coverage target. In practice this means that there are still plenty of areas even in rollout locations where customers won’t be able to use 4G but will fall back on to its 3G network (which EE is also bolstering by increasing network density).
Earlier this month, and as part of its marketing blitz to bang the drum about 4G before its rivals are able to launch their own LTE networks this year, EE announced it planned to double the speed of its LTE network in 10 cities by the end of June, to a headline speed of up to 130Mbps. The auction for 4G-suitable spectrum was completed earlier this year, and EE’s rivals are in the process of readying or building their own networks — with launches likely from late Spring/Summer, according to telecoms regulator Ofcom.
Two-year mobile contracts are common in the U.K. which means potential 4G customers are likely to wait for their existing contract to run its course before upgrading — which makes it important for EE to keep making a noise about its network to catch the eye of possible customers who are in a position to upgrade or switch.
The carrier’s sales staff have also been calling existing 3G customers to encourage them to upgrade — even, in one case recounted to TechCrunch, where upgrading to 4GEE made no sense, since the customer in question did not live in a 4G-enabled area or regularly visit any 4G-enabled areas. The customer was not told this during the sales call. It was only subsequently, when they noticed no speed difference and asked about 4G coverage, that EE admitted neither the customer’s home town or workplace location were on its rollout map — and would likely never get LTE. So at least one of those 318,000 4G customers isn’t actually able to use 4G.
To coincide with its Q1 results, EE commissioned a survey of its 4G users which indicates that close to half (42%) are downloading more apps when out and about, while more than a third (37%) reported using less or no public Wi-Fi since getting 4G. One in five also said they are using their home broadband less.
Each week on Smallbiztechnology.com, we post a lot of articles that help small businesses GROW their business. We want to make sure you didn’t miss anything, so here’s a quick roundup of what we talked about last week and a sneak peek at what we’ll be sending your way in the week to come. Check out our video here, or watch below:
We also have some amazing stuff coming up this week! Here’s a sneak peek:
On Monday, we’ll have 13 Tools To Seamlessly Share Business Leads and A Look at Rocket Lawyer, which gives you the power of a legal team on your phone.
Tuesday, we have Five Tools For Starting a Home- Based Business and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Social Media’s Impact on Your Brand.
Wednesday, we have Four Essentials For Growing a Top Notch Contract List For Email Marketing Campaigns and Five Ways To Keep Your Business’s Wireless Network Secure.
Thursday, we have a look at Cloud-Based Accounting Apps and How YouTube New Channel Design Presents New Marketing Opportunities.
Friday, we’ll tell you How To Avoid Downtime With a Proactive Approach To IT and we’ll have 16 Ways You Can Save On Your Top Ten Business Expenses.
You won’t want to miss any of that, and there’s a lot more beyond what I just mentioned, so come on back and let us know what you think in the comments!
Each week on Smallbiztechnology.com, we post a lot of articles that help small businesses GROW their business. We want to make sure you didn’t miss anything, so here’s a quick roundup of what we talked about last week and a sneak peek at what we’ll be sending your way in the week to come. Check out our video 