Mobile Web Growth Fueled by Smartphones
January 11, 2010 – 12:27 pmIt seems I’m asked this question every day: Will 2010 be the year for mobile? My answer hasn’t changed: I don’t believe there will be a specific year designated as the year mobile took off.
I believe we will continue to see steady growth in the mobile ecosystem and see defining moments, such as the launch of the first iPhone, the launch of the Android operating system, the moment Apple hit a billion apps downloaded from the App Store, etc.
On the topic of defining moments, Forrester thinks that 2010 will be “the year of the smartphone.”
As of January 2010, 17% of U.S. adult who subscribe to a cell phone plan use smartphones, up from 11% in 2008 and 7% in 2007.
Contrary to popular belief, BlackBerry holds a 2-to-1 advantage over Apple’s iPhone. Gartner predicts that Android will be second only to Symbian (Nokia) worldwide in 2012.
One area in particular that I believe will continue to gain importance is a mobile friendly website.
What does that mean, exactly?
In short, it doesn’t mean that all of the functionality from the normal website has to be mobile friendly.
What that does mean is that the basic features of the site should be available for mobile devices.
At a minimum, that should include a home page, an about page, contact information page, directions and in the case of a retail store, a store finder and hours of operation.
Think of it as a website, circa 1998: no animation, basic fonts, colors and limited graphic content (to minimize load time).
Try to load your site on your mobile device (regardless of what it is). Does it load? Are you redirected to a mobile friendly version?
Further Reading:
Forrester: Smartphone U.S. Market Share Reaches 17%
Quantcast: Mobile Web Growing Fast
Optimize Mobile Experiences, Advises Compete
Technorati Tags: mobile, Google, iPhone, mobile web, smartphone
