Mobile commerce: 5 trends to watch

We asked Michael Kopp, technology strategist and evangelist at Compuware APM Center of Excellence, to tell us what he sees as five top mobile-commerce trends to watch for in 2014.

Here’s what he told us the 2014 mobile trends will be:

1. Mobile is mainstream now and will grow to dominate client computing for e-commerce. When designing a site for speed and good looks, the trend has been and will continue to be to start with mobile and evolve the design up to larger screens using responsive design techniques.
2. Native mobile apps will continue to preferred by consumers over web based applications because they are more responsive. While apps may be preferred, it is a mistake for companies to ignore mobile sites however, as mobile visitors tend to be situational – when an app is available on their devices, they will use it, but they will use the mobile web when an app is not available.
3. Windows 7 laptops will continue to dominate the workplace, and Apple will dominate the corporate tablet market. On the consumer side, it will be far more varied, with a slow steady adoption of Windows 8 on the laptop/desktop side and a fight between Apple and Google for the mobile market (tablets and phones).
4. Personalization will grow. Your mobile device will learn your habits and predict your next move to provide you with proactive services such as providing custom menus in restaurants that exclude foods you don’t like or have allergies to. The evolution of smart services is already occurring. With the latest versions of the Android OS, anyone can make use of Google Now, which learns from your tablet and phone activity to make intelligent choices based on choices you have already made.
5. Small screens will grow and tablets will shrink to converge  at a 7-inch form “SmartTab” factor. Today smartphones are used for price checking and tablets for browsing and buying. SmartTabs will do both well.  Phones and smart tabs will continue to be dominant, but watch for new form factors, such as wrist devices, etc. While mobile is here to stay, the form factor will continue to evolve.