Shopping and Smartphones – A Consumer’s Best Friend

How many people have a smartphone to this date? Just the last statics of say Samsung with regards to their Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Galaxy Note have reached a whopping 10Million unit each. That's just two of their released products, not mentioning the others nor that from the other smart phone Manufacturers. There is hardly a day that goes buy in almost any country that one doesn't see someone using a smart phone. Gone are the days when the mobile phones were considered a luxury item that was simply used as a telephone. These days the smart phone's roles in the every lives of people is undeniably important. Convenience was once the key word, but now when asked people will say that Smart phones are necessary in their daily lives, from basic functions such as communications to routine stuff such as doing the grocery and shopping for clothes. It is in this later that people are becoming vastly dependent on their mobile units to help them make that quick choice of what, where, and when to buy the things that they need. 
Based on recent studies made by Google you'll see that people now have smartphones as their personal shopping assistant. They have access to thousands of applications that can carry that role with ease. Statistics show that 83% of smartphone users conduct research on their phones prior to making purchases. 71% of smartphone users use their phones to search about a product review before they head to the check out counter. Numbers are just numbers though unless you find a way to access the data that these shoppers input into their smartphones. It is this need that researchers have to address and in today's technology shouldn't be a hard thing to do. 
Incorporating mobile research data practices available to date, such as those used by in-app ads have helped companies gain consumer insight to the habits and growing needs of each individual person. This data is undeniably valuable to any company that wishes to edge up in the market and capture consumer interest. There are yet many methodologies that researchers can employ via these technological means all it really needs is a bit of creativity and knowledge of programming. Once you have gotten buy in from the people with smart phones to show you their world with a click of their thumbs, you'll get access to information that only market researchers in the past would've only dreamed about, right at the palm of your hands. We are moving into an era of fast paced communication and sharing of data, it would be best for researchers to keep up with the times or be left in the technological dust.