“Wow how time flies! Remember way back in 2003, when the company decided we needed a fantastic website, with all of the latest bells and whistles? Well we did it, and it served us quite well at first. But it is showing its age now though, isn’t it? I guess it’s time to call the designers and developers and make some changes….”

Does this scenario sound familiar? It’s sometimes hard to believe, but given the rapid speed of Internet growth, the cutting edge technology that companies worked so hard to implement just a few years ago is now outdated and insufficient.  I’ve been working with many companies that are coming to this realization, and an unfortunate trend has appeared. These companies, sadly are completely determined to keep using their 3rd party vendors and service providers.

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According to reports from Gartner, Juniper Research and others, smartphone sales are growing at a fantastic rate. Sales of smartphones have increased 47% over the previous year, and some estimates suggest that smartphones will make up 80% of the  mobile phone market in 5 years. Smartphones are defined as mobile phones with advanced capabilities – this sales trend has clearly been led by the iPhone and its internet connectivity.

If these analysts are correct, in a few years, 4 out of 5 people will be using the internet on their phones. What does this mean for you? Well, there will be a significant change in users’ internet usage behavior.
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Most website owners now realize that, in order for their site to remain popular and successful, it needs to evolve. Exactly how it should evolve, however, isn’t always easy to determine. Should you blog or tweet or implement some other buzzword you’ve heard lately?  Should you do what your competitors have already done?  Although these changes and ideas certainly have merit, by focusing just on these approaches you will  constantly be playing catchup.

Instead, I suggest thinking about your customers first and how you can use the internet and technology to make their lives easier.  Sure, a blog or twitter stream lets your customers hear from you more readily, and this communication has tremendous value.  However, this added communication doesn’t necessarily make you any less dispensable to the customer. Rather, to become truly indispensable, you need to offer them new services and features that they come to depend on.

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