I thought this moment would never come.
 
There’s a big milestone coming up for our dear friend the smartphone.
 
By the end of 2011 it is predicted that more than 50% of households will have a smartphone.
 
At Myplanet we are pumped. We were watching the mobile web back when Apps were still the edible kind, the iPhone was a glimmer in Steve Jobs’ eye, and .mobi had just been approved by our friends as ICANN.
 
It took awhile for smartphones to catch on. From high data rates, to limited competition, the initial few years were slow. But now with Google, Apple, Windows and RIM on board we’re facing a jump from 25% smartphone adoption in Q1 2010 to 50% by Q4 2011.
 
This is the juicy part of the technology adoption lifecycle, and a lot bigger than some cutesy Angry Birds. Think about the shift this will start to drive across entire industries. Think along the lines of the impact the internet had on the travel industry – that’s how big. Because where one-in-ten people walking into your store used to carry a smartphone, now half of them have one.

The many benefits of mobile

Smartphones are powerful little devices - that’s half of your customers that can now:

• Pay Up: With Near-Field Communications (NFC) present in this year’s line-up of smartphones, consumers can pay with their phone instead of a credit card.
• Mobile Web: We’ve seen a large spike in mobile share-of-traffic over the past year – from 2 – 5% of total web site traffic, to 10 – 15%. And that trend will continue. Consumers want access to relevant information when they need it, not when they have time to sit at their PC. Are you mobile optimized?
• Get Good Value: Access to information is in the palm of your hand. Smartphones make it easy to price shop while standing right in front of your products.
• Expect More: Review services make it increasingly easier to find the best restaurants, stores, entertainment and more. Smartphones also make it easier to complain about poor service while it happens (hello Twitter).
• Check In: Check-in concepts like Foursquare, Gowalla and Latitude make it easy for consumers to tell friends and family where they are and what they’re doing.

We’re already on top of the basics with our clients to ensure they adapt to incorporate the time sensitive, location-based, constant communication world that smartphones are bringing. That means at least ensuring they’re able to facilitate the key components of their customer interaction through mobile. If you’re a retailer, this means research and online ordering. If you’re a restaurant chain, it means your menu, Yelp! ratings and reservations.

The hard part - how will mobile shift companies and industries?

Our push is to understand the traditional industries that mobile will redefine. Similar to how Dell was able to use the phone and internet to facilitate a direct-to-consumer business model, mobile will change industries where location, real-time information and consumer control are lacking. We’ll be focusing on some of these industries with a blog and Twitter series throughout the year.
 
Internally, we’ve set in place the training to ensure that every single person on our team (including me) can build a mobile web site and a mobile app on at least one SDK by mid-year. Mobile is no longer optional, or the realm of the famed ‘mobile developer’ – our web work will need to seamlessly span and plan for mobile from day one.
 
Ps – This just discusses the role of the smartphone in North America. Think of the impact that smartphone availability will have across the developing world.
 
Pps - On a related note, if you're as excited by this manifesto as we are, we're hiring.

Thoughts? I’d love your comments below…