In 2009, the year following the iPhone’s release, eBay conducted $600 million in mobile transactions. Out of the gate eBay’s elegant app minimized friction throughout the acts of buying and selling. Ten years on, market research still struggles to keep pace. Why are links to 30-minute, even one hour plus surveys being emailed to potential respondents? What many refer to as the glacial pace of market research’s migration to mobile is not for lack of trying. Players new and old across the research project service arc have started entire companies, released new products, published parallel test findings and worked diligently to develop tools allowing the process of taking a survey on a smartphone to be as easy as booking a ride on Lyft. Many brand trackers have been redesigned and shortened without any changes to the valuable trend data and normative measures marketers use to make decisions.
