Consumer sales transactions completed on mobile devices will grow by 20%, as a proportion of overall interactions, between 2012 and 2015 in India, according to research commissioned by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) the leading IT services, consulting and business solutions firm.

The New Digital Mobile Consumer report highlights the criticality of developing a corporate strategy for interactions conducted with consumers specifically through mobile devices. In a similar trend to that seen in sales transactions, customer services and mobile-specific market campaigns will experience substantial growth as a percentage of overall consumer interactions, growing 24% and 23% respectively between 2012 and 2015.

The companies reporting the greatest success with digital mobile consumers are those that are quickest to adapt to new platforms such as the tablets. Globally, the leading companies had an average of 25% of their mobile apps designed specifically for tablets; in contrast, the companies with the least success had just 17%. Rapid adoption of multiple mobile devices by both consumers and employees, however, is demanding that mobile strategies evolve further still.

Businesses increasingly need applications designed to run on both smartphones and tablets. The leading companies within the study recognise that this strategy allows them to scale out their applications more effectively across user groups and mobile device types. In India in 2012, 30% of companies have apps running on both smartphones and tablets. But this is set increase by 20%, with 36% planned to be usable on both types of devices by 2015.

"Consumer facing businesses need to develop strong, well-executed digital mobile consumer strategies in order to capitalise on the tremendous sales, marketing, and service opportunities that are now unfolding via the mobile devices of consumers", comments Dr Satya Ramaswamy, Global Head of Mobility at TCS. "Smartphones are becoming the preferred computing devices for consumers while they are out-and-about, whereas tablets are taking an increasingly central role for these consumers while they are within their homes. As a result, these mobile devices are transforming customer experiences into anytime-anywhere contextual interactions and are becoming the new battlegrounds for attracting and retaining profitable consumer segments."

"In The New Digital Mobile Consumer study, we found that across several industries - transportation, travel, entertainment, media, telecom, retail and others, top executives expect sales, marketing, and service interactions via mobile devices to increase dramatically over the next few years. Businesses that fail to adequately address these interactions via mobile devices risk being side-lined by competitors, and will be missing precious sales opportunities".

Companies are also beginning to understand the need to diversify their approach to applications to improve the way they work internally. In 2012, the typical Indian company will have the most apps developed for customer services reps (29 apps) by a slight margin, with apps designed for consumers (24) slightly lagging those for salespeople (26). However by 2015, customer services will be accelerating ahead (40) with apps for salespeople (33) remaining slightly ahead of those for consumers (31).