There was a really interesting article in the NY Times yesterday that describes how people are using their smart-phones these days.  It is based on a survey that Nielsen just released on Monday.



What I found interesting about this article is where the divergence occurs between "smart" phones and "feature" phones.  If you look at the chart above you will notice that at the top of the list there is little divergence in how people are using the devices.  Sure the smart-phone users are slightly more active, but that is most likely due simply to the availability and the vast improvement in user experience that smart-phones provide.  The divergence occurs further down the list and I believe this represents the largest area of growth in the smart-phone business and the largest opportunity for local marketers.  

Take a look a the chart below which I created based on the data above.



This chart shows the % increase by category in the number of smart-phone users over the feature phone users.  In other words over twice (120%) of the smart-phone users are using their phones for productivity when compared to feature phone users - this is divergence. The chart also shows how each category ranked in the Nielsen graph above; this is shown in the column called Usage Rank.  For example Games was the #1 ranked use in the Nielsen survey.

When I take a look at this chart from a local marketing perspective I get really excited.  Notice that 3 of the top 5 growth categories are related to consumer spending at the local level - dining, retail and food and drink.  Combine this growth with the growth of the smartphone penetration in the US (see chart below) and you have one monster opportunity on your hands.  



Never before have marketers had such a connection to a consumer near the point of a purchase.  If you have not considered how you or your channel are going to be approaching mobile as a medium, might I suggest that you get right on that.