That 2007 article saying smartphones would kill physical stores by 2012

I remember reading that prediction back then and thinking no way, but now I just drove 30 miles to a mall that still exists because Amazon failed to deliver my order on time and the store actually had it in stock.

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse_barnes3711d ago

Is the whole "online kills retail" thing just repeating itself every decade with different technology? Instead of a clean death, we got this weird hybrid where ordering online is faster than driving to a store but somehow slower than just walking in and grabbing it. Really makes you wonder if the prediction was just off on the timeline, not the actual outcome.

johnson.ryan11d ago

Start with this: you kind of nailed it with the timeline thing but the 2012 prediction was just based on what they saw back then. Smartphones were exploding but stores were hanging on because people still wanted to touch stuff before buying. The real shift happened later when Amazon got same day delivery going and stores started using their own apps to pull people in. So the idea was right but the date was way off. We ended up in this weird middle ground where both sides had to change.