By Rieva Lesonsky
Apple’s smartwatch is moving the mobile boom into high gear.
We’ve talked about the growing importance (really dominance) of mobile before, but according to eMarketer, 2015 is very likely going to actually be the long-awaited “Year of Mobile.”
A lot of this is due, eMarketer says, to the growth of M2M technology, or machine-to-machine, which, says Wikipedia, means technologies that allow both wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices of the same type.
According to eMarketer, GSMA Intelligence estimates released there will be 317 million M2M mobile connections worldwide in 2015—an increase of 74 million from 2014. By 2020, this number is projected to come close to 1 billion connections.
eMarketer also predicts a boom in wearables, which is not surprising given the excitement about Apple’s new smartwatches earlier this week (and which I covered on Fox Small Business). GfK predicts more than 51 million wearables will be sold this year, up from 18 million last year. Up to now, fitness devices have dominated the category, but smartwatch sales are expected to surge.
What all this means is if you haven’t converted your website so that it’s mobile-friendly, you’re running out of time. Starting April 21, Google will be ranking sites based on mobile-friendliness.
Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a media and custom content company focusing on small business and entrepreneurship. Email Rieva at rieva@smallbizdaily.com, follow her on Google+ and Twitter.com/Rieva.
