How has the iPhone changed the internet in 15 years? [PARTIE 2] – Special center
On November 22, 2007, the iPhone 2G was released in France. Apple will shake up the telecommunications industry and its leader, Nokia, and change the face of the Internet, freeing it from the computer. 15 years later, in a world where internet access is mostly from smartphones, what has mobile contributed to the internet?
A continuation of our exploration of five new key points. You can find the top five here.
From mail to notifications and messaging, to real-time information and conversational marketing
With the development of applications, a new communication channel was introduced to companies with the arrival of push notifications in iOS 3 in 2009. Very effective in the fight for attention, this new channel to a nearby target (because it downloads the application) complements SMS, especially mobile, which is more universal, but also more expensive and unrelated to services.
Push notifications with opt-in rates over 80% on Android and over 50% on iOS, as well as click-through rate (between 3.4% and 4.6% depending on OS), which is the preferred tool for generating app usage. benefits. And advertisers had to learn to play complementarity and pressure between emails, SMS and notifications, accelerating the need for centralized CRM platforms and marketing automation tools.
The latest innovations, such as Live Actions appearing in iOS 16, further strengthen the real-time and contextual aspect of notifications, turning these features (like widgets) into real communication capsules that extend the presence of brands on their users’ terminals.
Given the success of mobile notifications, web push notifications provide (almost) the same functionality on websites and computers.
At the same time, smartphones have also introduced instant messaging (WhatsApp, Messenger) as the preferred channel of interaction – first between individuals and then with companies – gradually introducing more direct, more personal conversational marketing and stronger intimacy between brands and their customers.
Average open rate and push notification by sector
From fixed to mobile, place at the heart of the experience
One of the main contributions of mobile to the Internet is the simplification of user geolocation. By allowing localization through GPS, smartphones have completely democratized the integration of the user’s position in the contextualization of services. In “geocentric” services such as Google Maps, Waze or Uber, or in more traditional services that integrate geolocation (e.g. media for local information), functionality at the time intended for professional uses and terminals (vehicle fleet).
The location of users together with real-time notifications allows the generation of alert services for home automation, for example (home entry/exit detection) or forgetting keys or any other object associated with Airtags.
With the arrival of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) in the iPhone 12, it is now the micro-location and control of very short distances and objects in space that will enable the development of new services.
Thus, the mobile Internet moved from a static, asynchronous, and “device-centric” mode to a “user-centric” mode, where services are contextual, real-time, and connected to the person and their environment.
Geolocation: tracking integrated into services
From passwords to biometrics, a new way of living and interacting with the world
Where the fixed Internet connects the home or office, the use of the Internet on smartphones connected to connected objects is gradually connecting the whole world and turning the mobile device into a remote control that allows you to control and interact with it.
First, by democratizing biometrics to authenticate people, it can be a more effective advancement than geolocation. Regardless of facial or fingerprint recognition, the mobile phone has become the primary authentication key beyond the “trusted terminal” used by banks for strong authentication.
Thanks to this security and the integration of technologies such as QR Code (and yes!), Bluetooth, NFC (Near Field Communication) or RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), the mobile phone has become the entry terminal and payment terminal in traditional stores. bank cards and loyalty cards, Navigo tickets, train and plane tickets and concert tickets have become a real electronic wallet… The decree of April 26, 2022 even approved the creation of a tool called Digital Identity Guarantee System (SGIN) of electronic identification ID cards and paves the way for dematerialization of passports.
All this allows us to gradually accompany us in the management of our activity and health, especially relying on sensors (integrated into the smartphone or available in Apple Watch-type extensions). The extreme miniaturization of components, sensors, and computing power that serves to democratize certain technologies that fifty years ago were still reserved for Nobel laureates can be fascinating.
The evolution of iPhone security systems
From cookies to health data, personal data is a key issue
As we have seen, the ever-increasing capture of personal and sensitive data (geolocation, payment, biometrics and health) and the constant use of internet connectivity in our lives have increased the opportunities for data collection by companies.
Mobile has radically accelerated the need to change the legal framework around consent and the use of user data, leading to the introduction of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in 2018, followed by the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Act. Services Act (DSA) in 2022.
Outside of regulation, smartphone use in private life, linked to social networks that allow instant and widespread distribution of content, disrupts our relationship to ourselves and others.
More and more detailed Health application
From voice to services, mobile is eating up the world
In 2014, Benedict Evans published a study that became famous and called “Mobile is eating the world”. Since then, this trend has not changed, and the iPhone connected the Internet to the individual, giving Tim Berners-Lee’s invention superpowers. Information, media and social networks, entertainment (music, photography, film and television, video games), commerce and payment, education and work,… several sectors outside the Internet avoid smartphones.
15 years after its launch, and after canceling tablets, wearables and the iOT wave (so to speak), the iPhone can approach the rise of Web3 and its place in our world in relative calm over the next 15 years.
Apple’s revenue evolution since 2010
Go here to (re)discover part one of this article In this way.
Born with the 1st iPhone, USERADGENTS supports you in the strategy, design and development of your websites and mobile apps. Do you have a project? Contact us!
