‘Inflation’ is basically the rise in prices of general goods and services over a set period of time. When inflation is said to be high, it means that everything you buy is generally more expensive than it was before. So let’s say you could buy a chocolate bar for £1 and then the price goes up to £1.10: that is when inflation has gone up, and your pound is still worth the same amount and no longer stretches to the price of a tasty snack.
The way the Office of National statistics works out the rate of inflation is by regularly compiling a rather large ‘basket’ of goods (650 items) which they consider to be those most commonly purchased by a ‘typical consumer’ and keeping track of how each ones price fluctuates. They use a big formula to come up with the annual percentage rate inflation which normally comes out at something like 3.2%, meaning that inflation has gone up that year. (Consumer price inflation is currently at 4%…in case you were wondering.)
What about my smartphone?
Yes the point is that smartphones and downloadable apps have now been added to this basket of goods and services, along with hair conditioner, dried fruit and MDF. While vending machine cigarettes, rose bushes and the price it costs to have your kitten sprayed at the vet, have all been removed. This means that your smartphone is now deemed to be one of the things a typical consumer buys and that their apps are also now such a common purchase that they get a place in this giant basket.
What you should take from this information is that if your business has not taken into account the importance of having a presence on smartphones in the shape of apps, you really should think about doing it now. The more powerful smartphones get, the more sophisticated apps are able to be, meaning that whatever your business there will be something you can offer in the shape of an app that will be of benefit to people. Some more complex apps can even allow your payment service provider to handle purchases and payment processing meaning there’s plenty of scope to make profit from smartphone apps.
Interestingly another thing that has been added to the basket is dating agency fees. This shows a trend that more people are using dating agencies than ever before. I guess this means that if you have a dating agency and you want to find some way to increase your clients, you should seriously consider getting an app made. With £400m a year spent on every item in the basket, you can be assured that you will find plenty of takers.
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Tags: Ecommerce, inflation, smartphone
