What’s Next After Facebook and Twitter?

For the past few years, we have witnessed the epic battle between different social networking sites. Clearly, Facebook and Twitter have won it. Even Orkut lost its stranglehold in Brazil to Facebook.

In the professional social media sector, LinkedIn leads, but mainstream is still ruled by the two. Users are happy with the current services available and are probably sick and tired of migrating to another site. Well, I’m not suggesting that Facebook and Twitter wouldn’t fall (business gravity would agree). But both are definitely going to remain dominant for a long time.

Now, with the social battle dust settled down I believe mobile is going to be the next wave. With statistics like this, it isn’t hard to predict it anyway.

Mobile: Not Just Smartphones but Tablets too

If Blackberry spearheaded the smartphone industry, Apple’s iPhone revolutionized it. And the mobile world is more than just phones. It also consists of tablets. Apple took the first mover advantage through its quick introduction of the iPad and despite critics prior to its launch; the world is pretty satisfied with this piece of device. Forgot about the argument about who was the first to come out with the tablet idea. It doesn’t matter because the first to market it wins. And in this case, Apple won.

Many tech companies are playing the chase game after witnessing iPad’s success, typically Google and BlackBerry. The world gladly anticipates their devices and hopefully they’re something different from Apple’s. To tech enthusiasts, this competition is fun and it clearly proves that the tablet isn’t a fad. It provides value and is here to stay. Cliché but true, a tablet gives you desktop web experience with smartphone’s convenience. If mobile were going big, tablets would certainly play a crucial role.

Mobile: Opportunities

Whether it’s about start-up, marketing or business management opportunities, mobile has plenty to offer. Businesses and entrepreneurs have already shown glimpses on how the mobile world could look like.

Pizza Hut has an interesting mobile order app, which allows users to order with a couple of swipes, pinches and shakes. Volkswagen has a series of test drive mobile apps for its cars. The German car brand smartly combines gaming and branding experience into one and provides users the convenience to understand more about its cars through the apps.

If you agree that data is king, Snapfinger could be one start-up to watch. Snapfinger is a mobile app company, which has the potential to revolutionize the way we order food and how restaurants connect with its customers.

As we previously described:

“Snapfinger provides tools for group ordering for an office lunch, ordering favorite items with one click and getting location-based, limited-time coupons.