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imageWhen I pick up my smartphone, I’m constantly amazed at the number of ways it enhances my life. From the palm of my hand, I’m able to find a local restaurant, read its reviews and then click on its phone number to call and reserve a table. Or I can use it at the gym with my favorite health-and-fitness app, to track and measure my steps, distance and average speed when running on the treadmill, and knowing what foods to avoid later on.

I’ve learned how to pay my bills online using my smartphone. No more stamp booklets for me! And there’s more – I can check the efficiency and accuracy of my phone’s used car ratings app at my local car dealership. Even the former buy here pay here car dealership has its own mobile app now that lets me shop for used cars by ZIP code.

Android and iOS Smartphone Users

According to the technology-based website Nielsen.com, Android and iOS smartphone users account for 88 percent of those who have downloaded an app in the past month. Smartphone users now have an average of 41 apps on their phone, as opposed to 32 in 2011. And this year’s smartphone owner isn’t only downloading more apps, but is also spending about 10 percent more time using these specific apps, as opposed to the entire mobile web.

Having all this knowledge in the palm of my hand is a revolution of the individual. No longer are we in need of experts to consult when the ability to find the information is at our fingertips. Mobile phones have become like small time capsules of our everyday lives, documenting what we do, who we call, how we socialize, what we buy, what we watch and where our attention goes.

Ride the Internet Boom

Finally, all the promises of the Internet are becoming realized. Has it really been 17 years since Netscape went public with its IPO and kicked off the start of the Internet boom? For 20/30 somethings who’ve grown up in the Internet age, this is all pretty realistic. For older individuals, it’s truly a sea change of activities from how we conducted our lives just 20-years-ago.

The rise in mobile online shopping, coupled with office workers sitting at PCs, is leading Internet retail experts to suggest that the first two Mondays in December 2012 will be the biggest cybershopping days ever. This is a direct result of people becoming more comfortable shopping online, and more of them having checking accounts linked to their mobile devices.

It seems not to make a difference if you access different apps for an Apple iPhone or a Google-based Android smartphone. App developers are creating apps for both platforms at an equally rapid pace and it’s just a matter of time when users have everything they need at their fingertips. And as paying mechanisms for the web like the ones implemented by PayPal, Amazon and others continue to steam ahead, more money is also being poured into marketing on mobile devices to get users’ attention and turn them into paying customers.

Will mobile phone users be able to withstand the mobile marketing onslaught that will surely come with every new app we choose to use? I’m sure there’ll be an app for that.