insight

Underestimating the Mobile Web

by Christina Silva December 22, 2009

Need a Mobile version of your website? All signs point to yes. 

Apple released the iPhone, named Invention of the Year by Time magazine in 2007, and this October Motorola released its DROID phone, which Time named No. 1 of its Top 10 Gadgets of 2009. BlackBerry can be Bold or Curve, and Palm has its Pre. Chances are you have one of these phones and are just an index finger away from browsing the web.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, “Of the more than 1.2 billion mobile phones expected to ship globally in all of 2009, nearly 190 million will be smartphones.” They estimate this number to increase to 250 million in 2010.

Thanks to the smartphone, and other handheld devices such as Kindle and Sony’s PSP, the web has evolved to become mobile. Per Mary Meeker, Technology Analyst at Morgan Stanley, “People are underestimating how big the mobile Web will be in the coming years.” If you already have a mobile website or are considering creating one, you are way ahead of the curve. Here are a few resources available for developing a mobile version of your website sans coding skills.

MoFuse – A mobile-software start-up working with companies to create and maintain a basic site on all platforms, which is key due to lack of platform standardization.

Zinadoo – Received the Mobile Internet Innovation Award for 2008. It offers a free mobile site creation tool, free hosting and a free .mobi domain name. For these free services, Zinadoo mobile websites will display ads that can be disabled for a small cost.

Contec Innovations – A web content aggregator delivering current news, sports, finance and entertainment via its patent-pending BUZmob Mobile Media Network.

While the resources above will certainly get your mobile presence up and running, it’s important to develop a mobile content strategy beforehand. Springbox has found that condensed, simplified versions of primary sites — designed for navigating content on a smaller screen — are your best option. Next time you are on your smartphone, check out Facebook, Target, YouTube and The Weather Channel to see a few companies who are doing mobile right.

 There goes the web evolving again. This time be ready.

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