Although Brandon McGee finds it somewhat disturbing that kids today are more likely to have a mobile phone than a book, he embraces the mobile trend and advises everyone do the same.

As Dell’s Mobile Strategist, McGee can’t ignore that in 2009, 1.2 billion phones were sold online, that 70 percent of the world has mobile phones and that according to Gartner, 13 percent of all e-commerce transactions will come from mobile by 2013. He is walking his company through new trends in mobile and how to decide whether to use mobile website or applications, or any number of combinations of the two, whether to outsource or bring the development in-house, how to use SMS marketing and how to make solutions secure.

McGee outlines the success for mobile with an acronym, a success “KIT,” which goes something like this:

Knowledge: You must understand the industry.
Idea: Build your big idea. What’s your objective? Who’s your audience? What’s your budget? What’s your business?
Team: Form a cross-functional team. Don’t try to do this yourself. Pull in senior executives, someone from IT, someone from legal, someone from marketing. Get them bought in from day one.

With this kit at your fingertips, you should be able to determine whether an APP or a mobile site is best and how to go about tackling whichever you decide on. According to McGee, the mobile web gives users the ability to browse and purchase and get ubiquitous access to the online space, whereas applications are geared toward brand loyal customers and offer a richer user experience. If you decide on an APP, don’t tell your customers you have an APP and then take them to a browser, advises McGee. If you take them into an APP, they want and expect to have a rich user experience, so don’t tease them.

Regardless of which works better for your company, McGee says that you must make sure your solution is secure and that you are promoting your mobile space on your online site.