These New Technologies Are Making Smartphones Less Cluttered, More Personalized, And Better At Completing Tasks

Smartphones are the most personal of consumer electronics devices, and yet they aren't actually all that great at helping users find what they're looking for. The devices are often cluttered with apps, difficult to navigate, and not particularly useful when it comes to completing multistep tasks.

Trying to improve these aspects of the smartphone experience is one of the top priorities of Apple and Google, as well as a host of new apps. These companies are offering services from app launchers to custom lock screens to smart personal agents and intelligent personal assistants (e.g., Google Now), and task automation tools.

In a recent report on mobile personalization, BI Intelligence takes a more in-depth look at each of these categories, and examines some of the well-known apps or technologies that fall under each, including Google Now, Apple's Siri, and IFTTT (If This Then That), among others. We also look at the opportunity these new apps and services are creating to deliver personalized ads and marketing to consumers.

Consider the boom underway in usage of personalization services on just Android phones:

• There are 4,500 Android personalization apps operating on Flurry's app analytics platform.
• Usage of these Android services has skyrocketed 1,325%. There were over 6.6 billion user sessions on these apps in the first quarter of 2014. That's compared to just 468 million personalization app sessions in the same quarter a year ago.
• The roughly 7 billion app sessions in the first quarter amount to more personalization app sessions than took place in all of 2013. There were about 5.8 billion app sessions last year.

With consumers responding favorably and usage taking off, expect many more mobile app companies to enter the field, particularly on Android.

Why is customization/personalization important?

• Personalization is important to virtually any kind of mobile service. Individualized feeds, recommendations, and content help apps be more engaging and retain users. This goes for travel apps, e-commerce apps - even games (which might vary game mechanics or themes depending on individual preferences).
• Increasingly, mobile is a differentiation game. The software and hardware side are littered with look-alike products at different price points. Effective personalization can help businesses stand out.
• These tools, and the data they collect, allow for the kind of individualized hyper-targeting that is marketers' Holy Grail.

In full, the report:

• Provides a taxonomy of common personalization services, including app launchers, task automators, and digital concierges.
• Quantifies the addressable markets for leading personalization products like Google Now, Apple's Siri, If This Then That (IFTTT), Aviate, and Cover.
• Addresses key reasons why consumers are taking to this technology, namely the opportunity they offer to streamline the smartphone experience.
• Discusses how marketers can effectively use the data and services offered through personalization services to serve the absolute most relevant content to users.
• Identifies specific mobile ad formats that can successfully integrate into personalization technology and services.

For full access to the Personalization Report and all BI Intelligence's charts, data, and analysis on the mobile industry sign up for a free trial subscription today.