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How well does your Web site travel?
Consumers increasingly use mobile devices to access Internet
By Joe Dysart
After developing, designing,
redesigning and endlessly tweaking
your Web site, you’re finally
happy with it. Good for you.
Now it’s time to go back to the
drawing board: Chances are that your
Web site, which works on desktops
and laptops, isn’t meeting the needs of
mobile Internet users. And the number
of mobile users is on the rise.
Gartner, an information technology
research and advisory firm based in
Stamford, Conn., is predicting that by
2013, the number of mobile phones on
the planet with Internet access and the
number of computers with the same
capabilities will be nearly equal.
“According to Gartner’s forecast,
the total number of PCs in use will
reach 1.78 billion units in 2013,” says
Brian Gammage, co-author of the
report “Gartner’s Top Predictions for
IT Organizations and Users: 2010 and
Beyond.” The number of smart phones
is expected to reach 1.32 billion units
that year.
Hung LeHong, another co-author
of the Gartner study, is predicting that
by 2014, the market penetration of
mobile phones worldwide will be 90%.
Gartner’s projections are significant for
any company and especially so for businesses
that have yet to begin developing
a mobile Web strategy.
Relying on mobile
A study released by Motorola in January
found that 51% of shoppers surveyed
during the 2009 holiday shopping season
used their mobile phones in some
way to make a purchase. Those uses
included comparison shopping, reading
product reviews, researching product
information and downloading coupons.
Not surprisingly, the figures for
www.sleepproducts.org/bedtimes
younger shoppers were even more
dramatic. Nearly two-thirds (64%)
of Generation Y shoppers used their
mobile phones to help conclude a
purchase during the holidays—and
21% of those same shoppers used a
mobile phone to compare in-store
prices with those on the Web.
Thomas Husson, a senior analyst
with the global firm Forrester Research,
predicts in the “2010 Mobile Trends”
report released in January that “companies
of all shapes and sizes, as well
as governments and local authorities,
will start integrating mobile into their
overall approach, rather than simply
launching a few mobile initiatives.”
And, he adds, “many brands will also
realize that they need budgets to promote
their apps, and more importantly,
that they need to plan their next steps—
be it upgrading their service, porting the
app to a different environment, such as
Android, etc.”
Husson also expects increasing numbers
of retailers, in particular, to experiment
with geo-targeting—the practice
of automatically sending promotional
texts, coupons or other advertisements
to the mobile phones of consumers
walking by storefronts.
Geo-targeting, he says, will become
“a key component of mobile social
experiences and mobile marketing
campaigns.”
Ways to do it
Granted, retooling your company’s
Web presence to accommodate users
of a wide variety of mobile devices
will be a chore. But Husson believes
the effort could pay off handsomely in
the long run.
“Beyond direct revenues, mobile can
play a key role in satisfying your most
loyal customers,” he says.
There are myriad resources available
to companies wanting to pull together a
mobile Web site strategy. Here are a few
sites, books and products to investigate:
➤ mobiForge With more than 26,000
members, the mobiForge Web development
community site
(www.mobiforge.com) is a good
place to visit if you’re looking to
quickly get up to speed on mobile
Web development.
The first stop for a beginner is
mobiForge’s “Starting” section, which
offers educational materials, books
and training guides.
Other sections of the mobiForge site
are devoted to designing, developing
and testing mobile Web sites. The “Running”
section, for example, offers ideas
on how to monetize a site after it has
been mobilized.
There also are forums and a directory
of mobile Web development agencies,
mobile Web development tools and
other resources.
➤Mobile Web books For an in-depth
look at developing sites for the mobile Web,
check out Mobile Web Design by Cameron
BedTimes | April 2010 | 9