Welcome to the first This Week in Mobility – my weekly review of the big news around mobility and flexible working. Leading the media agenda this week has been the imminent iPhone6 launch. Mobility as a strategy is hugely important to enterprises, but this impending announcement has served to highlight the central role that mobility plays in the lives of the consumer on the street. A huge amount of this comes down to how we are all personally more and more connected to our devices. The landscape is rapidly evolving, and this week’s developments prove that very point:
- Massive growth in 4G services has spearheaded the demand for mobile video. The latest figures show that 74% of 4G subscribers stream Netflix on their mobile device compared to just 26% of 3G subscribers. In fact, video now generates nearly half (42%) of daily data traffic volume on any given mobile network
- Being connected online via our mobile devices is crucial to the way we now work, live and play. A recent mobile internet road trip has shown that we start our day by consulting our weather and news apps, that we consult blogs and check video out most at lunch as well as showing that a significant 70% of us check our mobile device during a meal at least once a day. Moreover, half of all web pages load 38% faster now than in 2013
- Facebook’s video autoplay feature has come under criticism from consumer watchdogs as mobile users have seen their data allowances spike due to the flood of videos from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. This resulted in timeline videos being played regardless of whether the user wanted to see the content on Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G connections
- Concluding on a positive note, it was brilliant to see the launch of the Home Business Initiative– which should make it easier for entrepreneurs to start and run businesses from their homes. This will ultimately help drive the UK economy, something we should all get behind.
Let us know your thoughts on this week’s mobility news roundup. Have you found yourself watching more video content after upgrading to 4G? How integral is your mobile device in your daily schedule, and would you let it interrupt a meal? Did you find your data usage increase from watching the Ice Bucket Challenges? Let us know by commenting below or tweeting me personally at @GrahamFranklin or Cisco at @CiscoUKI
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