How Mobile Opens New Opportunities by Closing the Digital Divide

Much has been written about how mobile has helped close the telecommunications gap, what is becoming apparent now is how mobile is helping to close the digital divide. For those of us old enough to remember the ‘digital divide’ was coined as a phrase during the Clinton administration, and has come to refer to those that have or have not got access to digital information.

The digital divide is visible everywhere, in families, between cities and classes and most notably between nations. Though it often is, it need not be a reflection of relative wealth and you can find yourself on the wrong side of divide due to location, upbringing or just plain luck.

The spread of mobile communications and the development of better handsets and enhanced carrier capabilities mean that web access through mobile is now becoming far more commonplace, even if it is simply a byproduct of the spread of the mobile phone.

This is now starting to have a noticeable on the level of web penetration and how access to the internet is measured, as the article “How mobile is forcing us to change the way we measure the Internet” illustrates. This is all very well but what does it mean to those of us interested in mobile marketing?

Well just as mobile phones allowed the telecommunications industry to leapfrog forward in developing markets, the same effect is now being felt with regards to access to digital information. These new networks are creating new audiences and markets to which access via new media was strictly limited beforehand.

The infrastructure necessary to power mobile networks and access to the mobile web is much cheaper to establish and maintain than fixed line telecommunications and internet access. The cost of smartphones though for many still puts effective mobile web access out of reach, this though is changing quickly.

The increasing range of Android and other cheaper smartphones means that the developing markets will develop very quickly, and are likely to be bright spots of growth over the next few years. Of course it won’t only be in developing markets that smartphone usage grows as they quickly become the norm globally

As mobile use continues to spread in areas like Asia, Latin America and elsewhere this helps establish mobile advertising as a truly global medium, and Mojiva as a truly global network can help you utilize this as a great new tool. As we know mobile phones are all about the message, but now they can help spread that message far and wide.