Do These Technology Changes Make Your Head Spin?

The second version of the iPad was released less than 12 months after the inaugural launch of Apple’s first tablet computer. Would you be surprised to learn that Apple has already sold over $5B of its iPads? Or that Gartner forecasts tablet PC sales to explode from 20 million units in 2010 to 208 million units in 2014?

And if you believe that was incredibly fast, check out these fascinating technology changes & internet statistics:

- Americans who utilized the Web in 2000: 53%. Americans accessing the Net in 2010: 79%. (Pew Internet & American Life Project).

- Total daily time Northern Americans spent online in 2000: under 30 minutes. Daily time played out online now: 4 hours. (Media Metrix; The Media Audit.)

- Americans who owned a mobile phone in 2000: 50%. Those that have a cellular phone now: 91%. (New York Times/Gallup; CITA.)

- Quantity of SMS messages sent in 2000: 5.4 bln. Number of SMS messages sent in 2010: 1.5 trillion. (MDA/Wireless Association; CITA.)

- Adults who used a social networking site in 2005: 8%. In April 2009: 46%. (Pew Internet & American Life Project.)

- Adults who made purchases over the Web in 2000: 28%. In 2010: 60%. (Pew Internet & American Life Project; Forrester.)

- Online web advertising expenditures in 2000: $7.2 bill. In 2009: $23 bn.. (IAB; PriceWaterhouseCoopers.)

- Traffic accidents concerning cell telephones or texting: 28%. (National Safety Council.)

- Google searches in 2004: 1.35 billion. Google searches in 2009: 6.75 billion. (Nielsen.)

- Homes with a mobile telephone but no landlines, 2003: 3%. In 2010: 24.5%. (CDC.)

These technology changes impact everyone from America’s top branding companies to “single-shingle” smaller enterprises. What do they mean for you? Here are a few crucial questions for your consideration.

3 Key Questions to Consider as Technology Continues to Change:

1) In a overwhelming market-place where everyone seems to be crying out for attention, only those with a clear, brief message will win. What’s yours?

2) How have you adjusted your communications approach to reach people in the way that’s most interesting to them?

3) What’s the one advanced technology that can offer you and your company a true competitive advantage? What will it take for you to move forward- – now?

Whether we want to make little tweaks or sweeping changes, we ought to be thinking about the best way to make our services and goods much more interesting to our customers, buyers, and consumers. Take a minute now to appraise where you are, where you wish to be, and the action-oriented steps which will get you there. You can do it!

Marie Elwood is an Atlanta marketing consultant who helps large firms develop winning strategies by leveraging her firm’s unique qualitative market research process.