The Mobile Web Revolution Is (Nearly) Here
Bigger, better, faster.
That’s been the trend in all things Internet over the last ten years. Computers and connections are faster. Monitors have been growing bigger and bigger. Websites and web applications have been stretching into all of that new screen size and bandwidth to deliver big, fast, media-rich, interactive sites.
Now that’s starting to change.
Bigger, better and faster aren’t going away. But a rapidly increasing number of people using the Internet are trading some of that in for other values: mobile and accessible.
Tiny phone screens and modest tablet screens are going to represent a sizeable part of web traffic in the future. I have not always been a believer that the mighty PC and laptop would actually be supplanted for “serious” Internet use. But I believe now. It’s still early, but the trending is clear.
The numbers tell us the future is not here yet and won’t be for a while. Mobile phone views only account for 1% of all webpage views worldwide. However, 2009 saw almost 150% growth in usage, and that trend is sure to continue and intensify, especially considering Apple is currently exploding the tablet market with the iPad just as they did to the smartphone market a few years ago.
I admit I scoffed at the iPad at first. Then I saw one of our clients interact with a custom web app we wrote on one, and consider the implications of sending his staff into the field to interact directly with the program via the tablet. It’s a brilliant idea, and I think the most valuable type of early adoption of the mobile web. For most companies, the biggest impact of the mobile/tablet web during these early years will not be optimizing their external web presence for mobility, but making internal applications (custom, collaboration, CRM, intranet, etc.) fully available to staff on smartphones and tablets.
If you want to read some high-level thinking about the mobile web, here’s an excellent interview between Magento and Forrester’s Brian Walker regarding mobile strategy.
What do you think? Have you seen companies make good use of the mobile web internally or externally? Think the mobile web is a revolution or a fad? Leave your comments below.
