In some ways the mayan were right.
2012 will mark a turning point in the recent history of mankind.
Ever since 1984, desktop and then laptop computers have been a significant part of our daily life.
Most of the people in their late 30s still remember being excited in front of their first computer and being fascinated by their first “portable” computer some years later.
At that time, the dream of carrying our personal digital belongings with us was still a… dream. With a 3 GB storage and 16MB ram your digital life could not be that much extended.

With the growing of storage and CPU capacity, things changed so much that thinking of what a computer experience could be only 10 years ago makes us laugh.
And that’s a good hint to unveil what the future might be holding as far as devices are concerned.

One thing is for sure. 2012 will be the year that will change everything.
Acccording to Morgan Stanley, mobile connections will surpass desk/laptops ones. The web experience will have to adapt more and more to this trend. And so will have to advertising. 

But what does this mean? Here are some tips to go mobile in 2012.

1) BEING MOBILE DOESN’T MEAN YOU ONLY HAVE TO ADAPT YOUR WEBSITE TO IPAD/IPHONE SPECS

Sure. When the world’s gone mobile, you really want people using apple devices to read your website and you want to adapt your content for them. And that’s right. But that’s not enough.
A readable interface is what people expect on your website as a minimum requirement.
If you don’t match that, stop reading this post and go back to school right now.
It takes more to be mobile.

2) MOBILE USERS MOVE AROUND.

For stupid this consideration may seem, it is a vital one for your mobile approach.
The freedom from lap and desks got your brand in people entire experience.
Night and day. Every moment and anywhere.
The information you provide people will have to be more and more geo-located and relevant to their actual experience.
If you are a B2C brand your mobile site/app should provide people the chance to check where to buy your goods or how to exploit the surroundings to have the best experience out of them.
Be WITH your target and empower them with relevant and useful experience in the place where they are and you will not fail.

3) INTEGRATE WITH DEVICES TOOLS AND FEATURES

The more you are able to integrate people mobile experience with the features of their device the more chances you have to hit the spot and be remembered.
This means i.e. providing information on a product on shelf through the device camera and then save those pictures as a shopping cart list, or anything like that.

Yes. This is painful for your business. Yes it requires IT integration, commitment and budget effort.
And no, you can’t dispense with that. If you want keep on having a mobile version of your website. But that won’t make any difference for your business.

4) PROVIDE ADD ONS TO THE DEVICE CAMERA

Ever since Nokia introduced the very first camera phone, people have never stopped being attracted by this feature. We all want to snap souvenirs of our best or worst moments of everyday life.
If you want (and you have to) go mobile in 2012, just don’t forget this.
Apps like hipstamatic and instagram clearly outline that the more you are able to empower users with visual effects/filters for their camera, the better.
And this doesn’t have to be connected to your business.
You might consider to gift buyers of your products with hipstamatic free downloads, or exclusive film rolls/filters collections or create your own app with filters and ability to share pics on people favorite sharing platforms. 

It does not matter how you choose to do it. Ride the wave of camera frenzy and connect it to your brand in a mobile perspective and you will not fail.

That’s it folks. More tips will come soon. Stay tuned.