Known worldwide for their incredibly loud products, the world famous amplifier and headphone manufacturer Marshall have now branched out and released their own mobile phone. Named ‘The London’, the Android phone has 4G, a 720p display, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage – nothing earth shattering there. However, Marshall have argued that the difference is that ‘The London’ has been designed to play music – and play it loud, by proclaiming it “The loudest phone on earth.” So with Marshall now tapping into the smartphone market, what are they to gain?
The smartphone industry is huge beyond a doubt, if you awoke from a 20-year long coma today, you’d be forgiven for thinking that mobile phone ownership is compulsory. As this report from last year shows, 90% of adults in the US own a mobile phone – 64% of whom are smartphone users. So is it any wonder Marshall are trying to shoehorn themselves into the market? When we consider the frequency of Apple updates and product offerings, we can only speculate that a steady flow of new products is healthy for the market. And how has this sudden spike in smart phone ownership shaped affiliated markets and the world around it? Let’s take a look at two areas of commerce that the smartphone has affected.
The Entire Internet
Dramatic? Perhaps not when we consider that a huge portion of internet activity takes place through a smartphone screen, primarily through apps. Everything about the internet is about convenience, as we’re seeing hosting companies like 1&1 beginning to give websites the tools to cater for the smaller screens. Meaning that the user doesn’t have to pinch and zoom their way around a site, but instead surf the net easily on phone, tablet or computer.
The Gaming Sector
In a report from The Guardian, a study from the Internet Advertising Bureau revealed that women in the UK make up 52% of gamers, with the majority are being smartphone games, particularly in the puzzle, trivia and word genres. Whether or not one considers these “true games”, the facts are facesmackingly obvious – that smartphone games and mobile phones are a wealth of opportunity, as Marshall have clearly noticed.
With mobile phone ownership continuing to rise, and technological advances leaping from year to year, it begs the question: what other markets will be shaped by smartphones in the future?