Mobile users browsing on the move
SMALLER businesses should gear up their websites for mobile access to accommodate the growing number of people who have internet capable mobile phones and want access while on the move.
In February, the GSM Association announced the four billionth mobile phone connection, and predicts this will increase to six billion by 2013.
Emerging markets like SA and the rest of Africa have vast potential for mobile internet. As far back as August 2006, the BBC carried a story on its website on international users who accessed its website with an internet capable mobile phone — 61% were based in Nigeria and 19% in SA.
It will become increasingly attractive to access web content from a mobile phone as the internet capabilities of these devices become more advanced.
Juniper Research says by 2013, 23% of all new mobile phones will be smartphones, which allow internet browsing.
Recent reports show a number of Smart phones will also soon offer Skype capabilities, including the Nokia’s N-series and its soon-to-be-launched N97, and Ericsson’s top end Xperia1 mobile device.
Global research company In-Stat forecasts more than 300-million Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phones will be sold in 2012 and the number of mobile phones able to receive video content will exceed half a billion by then. “Some smart phones already allow high resolution pictures taken to be uploaded directly to the web,” says Ceri James, sales and marketing director at JD Internet Consulting.
He says companies like Amazon.com and the BBC have mobile friendly websites and Radio 702 and Makro are among the local companies that do.
Some mobile-friendly websites automatically detect the user is using a mobile, but with websites like FaceBook, users access a specific address, says James.
A mobile browser can be downloaded free from www.opera.com/mini/download/, allowing content to be accessed from any website in a compressed format and users can zoom into any specific area.
Companies should understand the importance for customers to access their website from a mobile device and the content they would look for.
Most websites cannot be accessed by mobile users, often because they have been created in different sections containing different content. When viewing these pages with a mobile, all the frames of content are squashed into one cramped page.
More recently designed websites use techniques that overcome this problem.
Websites containing high resolution graphics present another problem for users because they slow down response times. “Mobile users want information quickly and view it clearly on the screen.”
For better mobile access all the rich unnecessary content should be stripped out and graphic images reduced to about 2kb. “If you browse on Amazon.com with a mobile phone, the images are small, but high enough resolution to view properly.”
Companies can set up web pages that contain a light version of the same content and a process that recognises a mobile user is browsing and diverts them to these pages from the same website address.
However, this will require keeping the mobile-friendly web pages in sync with the main website. If more than one person posts content, duplication can occur— the search engines do not like this, and it might affect the website rating.
The alternative is to build intelligence into the website that will recognise when users are browsing with a mobile phone and optimise the content and the way it is presented to them.
Information on the recently introduced international development standard for mobile website content, XHTML, can be viewed at www.w3.org. “It is possible to have a mix of XTML and HTML generated content on a website.”
Companies can check how mobile friendly their own or other websites are against the standard by visiting: http//:validation.w3.org/mobile website, says James.
Google has developed an internet tool that allows users to select a mobile view of websites when searching for information, more information about which can be found at www.google.com/pda .
Tools like Google analytics will provide a detailed breakdown of browser types and screen resolution.
James says in gearing a website for mobile access it is important to work with a web development company that understands the specific needs of these users.
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