06 Apr All The Rage
Most see the mortgage industry as being behind the times when it comes to innovation. Generally speaking it is hard to argue that point. However, in one regard the industry is bucking this trend. When I was at the MBA Tech I saw a lot of executives with iPads. I was shocked. While the mortgage industry has been slow to adopt things like the e-mortgage, it has been quick to embrace tablet technology.
In fact, Gartner projects that global spending on media tablets will be as much $29.4 billion this year, up from $9.6 billion in 2010. Here’s the kicker: IT spending on tablets will be a noticeable chunk of that spending, Gartner predicts. So, what do you need to know about tablets? A lot actually.
Gartner reiterated what it forecast back in January: IT organizations will spend $3.6 trillion this year. However, the analyst firm notched down growth projections to 5.1% from 5.6%. Spending would have declined, too, had Gartner not added media tablets like iPad to the mix. The addition boosts hardware spending growth to 9.5% from 7.5% year over year.
“The addition of media tablets, reinforced by an expected additional decline in the value of the dollar, accounts for the increase in top-line growth,” Richard Gordon, Gartner research vice president, said in a statement. “Absent the addition of media tablets, the forecast would have slightly declined in constant-dollar terms; however, with their addition, there’s virtually no change in underlying forecast growth at the level of overall IT.”
Gartner expects big media tablet spending growth—52% compounded annual average—through 2015. Spending on media tablets means IT organizations almost certainly would spend less somewhere else. Right now, Apple and Samsung are the only tablet manufacturers shipping in volume, but the market really belongs to Apple.
Apple ended 2010 with 83% global media market share, based on shipments, according to IDC. The analyst firm predicts that iPad will command at least 70% share throughout 2011. So increased tablet spending and enterprise adoption will be more likely to benefit Apple than competitors, at least in the short term.
But for all BlackBerry’s recent market share declines, it is still a prized possession among many professionals, including the President of the United States. Can RIM leverage its enterprise smartphone success to PlayBook, or have too many businesses converted to iPhone or Android smartphones? We’ll have to wait and see.
Regardless of who wins these technology wars, it’s evident that the world is quickly becoming mobile. As more functions were being done on your smatphone, the world cried out for more. The answer for now seems to be the tablet. In the mortgage space vendors need to use this trend to enable users to consume their application in a mobile world where it makes sense to do so.
Appraisers should be mobile. LOs should also be mobile. The point is, this phenomenon should provide vendors with an opportunity to look again at their technology to see where they can go mobile to solve the business problems of their clients. In a competitive market you need to seize every opportunity to prove that you are offering more value as compared to the next guy. Mobile isn’t going away. So, if you can come up with creative ways to improve the mortgage process through mobile, I suggest that you get started doing just that right now before others beat you to the punch.