Since the advent of the web, the main access point for getting online has always been the desktop or laptop computer. However, for the last few years manufacturers have quietly been incorporating web browsers into a variety of other devices, of which the most ubiquitous are undoubtably the so called ’smart’ phones and PDAs. These all now as standard come with an internet browser, as well as the ability to use their internet connection to access emails, weather data and much more.
Initially, high data costs associated with using the internet form mobile devices put a lot of people off using their phones to surf the web. The fact that the first generation of mobile web browsers struggled to cope with displaying even the most simple of web pages also didn’t help matters, and to a lot of people the ‘mobile web‘ seemed like more trouble than it was worth. However recently data plans for mobile phones have been tumbling in price, with some operators offering flat fee, uncapped plans for as little as £20 per month, and in combination with a slew of new generation mobile web browsers, accessing the web from a phone has suddenly got a lot more attractive.
A recent report compiled and released by Nielsen Mobile entitled the ‘Worldwide State of the Mobile Web‘, says that mobile internet usage has reached ‘critical mass’ and can now support “large scale marketing efforts”, with mobile web penetration in the US up to 15.6% of the population – around 40 million subscribers. The UK is in second place worldwide with 12.9% of the population browsing the web from their mobile phones. So it is clear that this really is a major trend, and with mobile phones in countries such as Russia and India far outnumbering landlines it looks like the rise of the mobile web is set to continue.
The mobile web
So what exactly is the ‘mobile’ web? How is it different from the ‘normal’ web? Well, in theory web browsers on mobile phones can view any of the same websites that you view from your desktop computer. In this case, the mobile web and the regular web are exactly the same; you are just viewing the internet through a different device.
However, there is a problem with this. Most mobile devices have a small form factor, and looking at websites that were designed for large monitors with these little screens is often a pretty tiresome experience, involving a lot of scrolling around (although some phones such as the iPhone deal with this problem in clever ways, discussed below). So many companies and individuals have started making special mobile-friendly versions of their sites that are optimised for smaller screens. Clever content-negotiation methods ensure that when you are using a mobile device you don’t need to do anything special to access these optimised sites – they ’sniff’ the device you are using to access them and redirect you accordingly. Of course you can still see these sites in your normal web browser if you know where to look – try going to m.flickr.com or m.twitter.com to see the mobile versions of their sites (try resizing your window nice and small to get a feel for how they would look on your phone).
So really the ‘mobile’ web consists of a kind of hybrid between regular websites and mobile optimised versions of sites. Some people have been quite vocal about the need not to create a situation where the web looks different according to the device that you are browsing it on; however the truth of the matter is that when you are accessing the internet on your phone you often have a very different set of objectives than when you are casually browsing at home. When accessing the web on mobile phones context is king – most of the time you just want to cut through the crap quickly and access information that is relevant to you in your current environment and location, wherever that may be.
Recently devices such as the iPhone (and the upcoming Google Android platform) have taken mobile computing to a whole new level, and have next-generation browsers that actually cope quite well with displaying regular, non mobile-optimised sites. This has re-ignited the debate over whether these special mobile sites are necessary. However, the context argument above is still valid, and the widespread adoption of iPhone optimised sites (try visiting this blog on your iPhone!) shows that there is definitely still value in stripped-down, task and information focused sites for mobile consumption.
The future
Ok, so what’s next for the mobile web? Well, clearly more growth, and it’s likely that more and more people will be offering mobile-optimised versions of their sites. Overall, doing things on the internet using your phone, PDA or other mobile internet enabled device will get easier and easier, and this will further encourage people to get onto the web while on the move.
The rapid spread of mobile phones in places such as Africa may also mean that in the future remote villages could get access to the internet over their phones, completely skipping the whole hard-wired infrastructure that is so costly to implement in such places. Technology such as this can often help alleviate poverty, by providing greater access to essential information such as market prices and weather predictions.
Another major side affect of this increased mobile web connectivity is the rise of location-based services. Many mobile phones are now also equipped with either GPS or cell tower ‘triangulation’ capabilities that allow them to pinpoint your position to a reasonable degree of accuracy. Combining this with internet access give a whole exciting range of new possibilities – for instance search results that are relevant to your current location (i.e. searching for ‘coffee shop’ in Google could give you a list of nearby coffee shops). This opens up whole new avenues for both the consumer to get locally relevant, contextual information on the move, and for advertisers to serve up ads that are targeted not just by keywords but also by location.
So all in all, it seems as if we are going to be spending less time on our laptops and more time on our phones in the future. So if you haven’t yet tried out browsing the internet on your mobile, I suggest you check out your phones capabilities and see if you can use it to get online!