If you don’t have a mobile app for your local business you are missing out. What are you missing out on? Probably the fastest growing communications market we have ever seen. There are currently billions of mobile phones in use, and over one billion of those are Internet capable smart phones. That’s a market local business owners can’t afford to ignore. Even more importantly, mobile device usage and mobile app usage is spreading like wildfire. It is estimated that by the year 2014 more people will be accessing the Internet via mobile device than desktop or laptop computer. Today’s busy lifestyle keeps getting busier and busier. Internet users are quickly falling in love with the convenience of being able to take the net with them.

People are not only talking, texting and watching movies. They are surfing, working, and shopping on their mobile devices. In fact, they are shopping with greater frequency than you probably ever imagined.  According to Michael J. Becker, of the Mobile Marketing Association, retail sales made this year are expected to reach nearly $120 billion. That number is only accounting for direct sales. An additional $153 billion to $230 billion are expected to be influenced by information or advertisements on mobile devices. In fact, many consumers say they like the advertisements on their mobile phone, especially those including QR (Quick Response) coupons and discount codes.

Every day, more people are logging on through a handheld device, loading a mobile app and spending money. Shopping appears to be one of the fastest growing activities for mobile phone users. In the 2011 shopping season, approximately 11 % of all retail sales were completed using a mobile devise according to the respected IBM Benchmark Report, a detailed analysis of more than 500 major retailers. The numbers for the 2010 were exactly half that. With sales doubling in a single season, and growing faster every day, the potential of the mobile app market is virtually unlimited.