The number of internet-ready mobile phones being offered by the mobile networks on their basic contract packages is steadily increasing, and there are more and more affordable internet packages available for mobile phones. This increase will presumably lead to increasing popularity of the mobile internet. From personal experience, a number of non-geeky friends already use the mobile internet to read the news, check the sports results (best not to mention the rugby!), even their emails. PocketPicks reported in July that there were 18 million mobile internet users in Europe alone.
Of course, anyone who has used the internet on a mobile will tell you that it's by no means perfect. In the Guardian today, Victor Keegan discusses some of the issues in a review of the Opera mobile browser. Reading the article lead me to question, firstly, does a "mobile internet" really exist and, if it does, should it?
Whilst there are an increasing number of websites being designed for use on mobile phones, they are a small proportion of the websites out there. If there is a "mobile internet", it's a very select club and any advanced (or even just curious) internet user is likely to find themselves rapidly finding themselves surfing "normal" websites on their mobile.
On to the second question, should there be a "mobile internet"? My personal view is that there should not; for website owners, having to maintain two versions of their websites is quite an undertaking, and for users, being shoved on to a more basic version of a website simply because of the device they are using isn't great either. Instead, mobile web browsers need to up their game and allow more easy viewing of "normal" sites (as the mobile Opera browsers claims to do). It takes two to tango of course, and to capture the maximum number of users/customers, website owners need to design their websites to be usable on a range of devices.
This brings us, in a slightly stream-of-consciousness manner, on to the subject of website accessibility. Ratger than create mobile specific versions of their websites, my view is that website owners should be putting their efforts into making their website accessible to all. In doing this, they will open their doors not only to the mobile phone audience; they will also go a long way to making themselves generally accessible. This alone should offer a good commercial incentive for websites improving their accessibility.
If the bottom line isn't enough, there is of course the issue that website accessibility is a matter of law in many countries (see our guide to UK web accessibility law). And if web accessibility being the law isn't enough, US class actions such as that which appears to be on the horizon following the Target ruling should send the message home that web accessibility is important. Forget the mobile web, let's create the accessible web.
Good call. And content designers, server, desktop and mobile software developers all adhering to agreed standards for documents and protocols would be a fantastic start!
Posted by: Peter Lewis | 25 October 2007 at 04:42 PM