By 2020, the mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the Internet for most people in the world.(1) Therefore, it is our job to ask… Are you ready?
Ebay, Amazon, Netflix and Facebook are. These brands, among others, have gone mobile, providing scaled-back, quickly loading versions of their web sites ideal for access on handheld devices and mobile phones. These web sites are smaller, single-screen and stripped of unnecessary graphics and other site elements (javascript, cookies), built with the functionality to accommodate the site visitor on the go. Whether in the car, airport parking lot, produce department or on the beach, people are seeking and expecting… thoughtfully designed MOBILE SITES.
Mobile sites are becoming more and more difficult to live without, as more and more people are accessing the Internet from their mobile devices. In the mobile world, you must be present, be brief and be easy-to-use, or you will miss out on visitors that are on foot, motivated and plentiful. Without a mobile site, the world can’t easily reach you outside their home or office. In a highly mobile and interactive world, is that the inconvenient message you want to send?
Newer mobile phones and mobile providers have also grown smarter, and able to overcome many of the restrictions that initially came with the mobile territory: small screen size, absence of mouse-like cursor, slow speed and connectivity problems, etc. Many of these phones have also become cheaper (BOOYAH! The iPhone is now $99), making them more accessible to a larger group of people that will be browsing the mobile world in no time.
So why go mobile?
1. Provide access
2. Demonstrate personal connectedness
3. Endorse innovation
4. Spend minimal marketing dollars
5. Benefit from the web’s organic nature
6. Calling 411 is so ten years ago
You don’t have to be Facebook or Orbitz to need a mobile site either. For example, if a client is in route to your office and needs the address and directions, how will they find them? If a prospect needs to access your contact info as they step off a plane to call you, how will they find your number? Or if a customer needs to do a quick price check on an item as they stand in another store, how will they do so?
The answer is through a MOBILE SITE. Whether you are Google or Joe’s Hardware, the future of the web is proving: the more (mobile), the merrier.
(1)Pew Internet & American Life Project
