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By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide. According to Gartner's PC installed base forecast, the total number of PCs in use will reach 1.78 billion units in 2013. By 2013, the combined installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will exceed 1.82 billion units and will be greater than the installed base for PCs thereafter.

Mobile Web users are typically prepared to make fewer clicks on a website than users accessing sites from a PC. Although a growing number of websites and Web-based applications offer support for small-form-factor mobile devices, many still do not. Websites not optimized for the smaller-screen formats will become a market barrier for their owners — much content and many sites will need to be reformatted/rebuilt.

However, in the rush to jump on the bandwagon and join in with this critical new channel, they are forgetting to educate their own employees, and it is hurting the efficacy of any efforts that they are making.

After all, mobile isn’t just new to companies and their marketing campaigns. It’s new to consumers, too. Many of them haven’t had their smartphones for more than a few months, and they’re still discovering what is possible. Though they may have heard of the popular services that businesses are joining by the thousands, these consumers may not yet know how to make them work on their own devices.

Equally, if QR codes are being posted on advertising, signage, or menus as a part of a mobile commerce campaign, then it is important to make sure that the staff – especially those who will be interacting with the customers that could be using those barcodes – understand what they are and that they can be scanned with smartphones when a scanning app has been installed on the device. That simple information can be enough to encourage its use by the consumer.

1 billion consumers will own smartphones by 2016, with U.S. users owning 257 million smartphones and 126 million tablets. By 2016, 350 million employees will use smartphones, with 200 million of them bringing their own.

Mobile spending will reach $1.3 trillion by 2016, or 35 percent of the technology economy, with the app market generating $56 billion by 2015.

Apple, Google and Microsoft are expected to control 91 percent of the U.S. smartphone market and 98 percent of the U.S. tablet market by 2016.

URLs are out, and QR codes are in. With technology advancing daily, people want things instantly and effortlessly. QR codes do exactly that.

An article in USA Today laid out the process in three short steps. First, download a free QR code reader application to a smartphone. Many Android, Nokia and Blackberry phones come with QR code readers pre-installed.

Why are U.S. retailers slow to adopt NFC payment technology? One reason is the expense and effort required to install NFC-enabled point-of-sale equipment in stores and to integrate it with merchants' systems.

It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg dynamic: Retailers typically don't invest in offering a new payment option until they see widespread consumer demand; but few consumers are likely to prefer a payment option that's not yet widely accepted.

Another Open Mobile Summit panelist, PayPal's VP for mobile, David Marcus, made this point: "Today, retailers learn about customers at the least effective time -- just when they're leaving the store. They'd like to know about you when you arrive at the store, so they can customize your shopping experience and treat you properly."