Mobile is huge. And so is the value marketers and companies can wring out of a comprehensive mobile strategy that starts with a mobile-optimized website. products on the move, and the number of businesses that have invested in a mobile-optimized website to satisfy their customer requirements. Richard Edwards surveyed mobile authorities and practitioners to get the answers. Are businesses mobile ready? Only a fraction of businesses in the five countries surveyed report having mobile optimized sites. ” Mobile in the fast-lane. MORE >>

What is the state of mobile retail readiness in Europe? How are Europe’s biggest retail brands extending their brand experience through mobile? Get the inside track by joining MobileGroove and Acquity Group executives this Wednesday (June 22) for Global Insight: European Retail Goes Mobile. The 30-minute online webinar (12-12:30 CST or click here to see the time in your region) will deep dive into the trends and mobile intelligence gleaned from Acquity’s first-ever European Mobile Audit of the top 300 European retail brands. Mobile Audit findings. MORE >>

It’s a tall order on mobile, where marketers must navigate an increasingly fragmented landscape and ensure they are supporting all the different ways their customers consume Web services. Ronan Cremin cuts through some of the myths about our mobile device usage and behavior to reveal what we really need to know about mobile. As more customers access your site from mobile devices, you have to do more to deliver a good user experience. distinct and Web-capable mobile devices models. Mobile is massive. Mobile is displacing PC. That was then. MORE >>

Voice — speech recognition and natural language understanding — are poised to transform our daily lives and disrupt all industries — not just mobile. Thanks to companies like Nuance Communications — which is also the speech-recognition engine behind Siri, the virtual personal assistant on the Apple iPhone — we are rapidly moving toward a voice-enabled future. ” What role will voice soon play in computing, mobile and our daily lives? Featured Mobile Search Mobile Voice Podcasts Apple iPhone GigaOm iPhone Nuance Siri Voice recognition MORE >>

It was the brands that told us with their increased marketing spends that 2010 was The Year of Mobile. Now consumers are the ones showing us through their actions — reaching for their mobile phones at every step of the consumer journey, from researching products to making purchases — that this is the Year of Mobile Commerce. The real news is our increasing reliance on mobile. percent of people used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site, up from 3.9 Additionally, mobile sales grew dramatically, reaching 6.6 retailers. were up 33.0 MORE >>