Companies worldwide are quickly realizing that mobile has not only changed digital operations, but that it will fundamentally change entire businesses in decades to come. 2014 will be an incremental year on this journey, as companies increase investments to transform their businesses and race to keep up with the growing mobile mind shift, with an installed base of more than 2 billion smartphones globally. In a new report, Forrester analysts Thomas Husson and Julie Ask outline key mobile trends anticipated for 2014. These include:

  • Big data, big data, big data. Mobile is transformative but only if consumers are engaged in their exact moment of need with the right services, content, or information. Insights gleaned from data over time will be essential to know how to best serve customers in that moment.
  • Mobile advertising will start to mature. New mobile-centric ad formats will emerge, with more effective mobile video inventory and more mobile ad network inventory shifting to the exchanges.

What won’t happen in 2014? According to Husson and Ask, don’t expect companies to catch up to their customers this year. “Your customers’ expectations are higher than you can achieve and are evolving faster than you can move — unless you are a mobile leader with Agile development teams in place.” Translation: There’s still a lot of work to be done around mobile, and the battle to win consumer mindshare on these devices will be fought long past 2014.

Learn more about “Predictions 2014: Mobile Trends For Marketers” here. Husson also blogs about the new research here.