The Year of Mobile?

One of the perks of this industry is the opportunity to go to the occasional industry conference. Besides the opportunity to connect with old friends, and meet some new ones, I’ve found it very typical to leave whatever conference du jour with at least 2 things –

1) Validation – validation that you’re on the right path, and staying ahead of the curve.

And…..

2) “THE phrase” that everyone keeps repeating over and over.

At this year’s Mobile Marketing Association Industry Conference, THE phrase was “The year of mobile”. Every presenter had their take — “Yes, this is the year!”. Or, “No, next year!”. Or, “The year will come within 5 years!”.

I guess watching the online industry for so long has given me a unique perspective to all of this. As I listened to all of the start-up companies discuss this topic, it reminded me of an early Fast Company conference that I was fortunate enough to attend in the late 1990’s where the same discussion was taking place regarding the web.

And then it hit me — there will be no “year of mobile” — it will just keep growing in popularity at an alarming rate in the U.S. and before we all know it, it will be just as ubiquitous as the online world within our daily lives. And then reality set in — just as 1995 was the time to experiment with the web — to see what works and what doesn’t, this is the era of mobile testing. Only now, we have the advantage of using all that we’ve learned over the past 15 years to be that much smarter as we head into new territory.