Gartner: Mobile to dominate, Internet marketing at risk

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Market research company Gartner is projecting that mobile phones will be the dominant Web access device by 2013, outstripping computers in total units in use.

The research company forecast an installed base of 1.82 billion enhanced phones with browsers three years from now, compared with 1.78 billion computers in use, and warned that companies neglecting to optimize their sites for mobile devices may be at a competitive disadvantage.
“Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2010 and Beyond: A New Balance,” also anticipated that the use of the Internet for marketing purposes will likely become regulated in North America and Europe, and possibly elsewhere, by 2015 due to overuse and abuse by marketers.

“It is not a question of whether marketers will abuse the Internet channel and annoy customers, but rather when they will do so enough to ... push legislation that regulates marketing activities on the Internet,” wrote Gartner analyst Kimberly Collins.