WAP. Eww.
Mobile is huge right now. Particularly hot are applications and there are plenty of examples which elicit the response of, “That is really neat”. It is always very clear when businesses understand how mobile can be used in effective ways.
However, this blog is going to concentrate on web content on mobiles for the moment.
There seems to be a pervasive atmosphere that web sites MUST adapt to mobile or they are going to die. This is the ‘all or nothing’ response to advances in technology which assumes that the next best thing is going to destroy everything that comes before it. This is nonsense, of course. History has shown that sites just evolve to adapt to advances in the internet and when they have failed it has been down to the business model, not that they were a bit slow with social media or the latest whizzy AJAX and jQuery magic.
Do you remember when WAP was hot? Web pages (just about) on your mobile phone! If you don’t have a WAP site you are going to be left behind! I even worked for a startup which specialised in software to rewrite content on the fly for best display on different devices. A bold new era!
Was WAP a panacea? No. It was slow. It was ugly. Mobile displays were small and typically not in colour. Navigation was poor. It was an exercise in frustration. Technically WAP still exists but it is so dated now that using the past tense feels strangely appropriate.
Mobile technology has moved on. We now have large, colourful screens and pretty well featured web browsers. Touch interfaces and/or decent keyboards are present. The underlying communications layer is FAST – be it 3G or Wifi. It is possible, although sometimes a little painful, to navigate ‘normal’ web sites which have not been optimised for mobile.
There is now a land grab to ensure optimised sites. What are you optimising for? Well, the iPhone naturally features heavily and Android is surging strongly forward but there are lots of different devices out there. There are many challenges in optimising a site; it isn’t just about design and putting graphics in the right place. The whole user experience must be considered as certain tasks are just going to be DIFFICULT on a small screen and without a mouse. It is possible to rethink interfaces but there is a limit as to how far you can go.
Man posing in coffee shop with Apple product. Yesterday.
The iPad is now with us and bringing tablet computing that bit closer to the masses. It is another step in making it easier to navigate the web when mobile. Large screen! Speed! Looks cool to be using it when in a coffee shop!
The way the technology curve is going, it is clear that mobile devices are going to catch up with the web first. It is not the case that the web must pander to the current crop of mobile devices (although they will in the short term, of course).
Look forward five years. Perhaps less. Imagine an iPhone-sized device than when you press a button magically expands to become iPad sized. Science fiction? In the days of WAP the prevalence of devices such as the iPhone and iPad would have been thought of in the same way.
Businesses should concentrate on their core web sites and products first. It will always be worthwhile considering mobile (particularly the application state) but be very wary of getting caught up in the land-grab without consideration of what the end result will be… especially when the mobile devices are going to evolve and give you what you seek for free later on.
Oh damn your blog – I typed out a really well though out reply to this but didn’t fill the form in right and it was deleted! Nevermind eh, the gist was I agree, and now long for a magic ipad:)
I couldn’t agree more.
If you believe the hype-ists and technology commentators and gurus, then it’s been the “year of mobile” for the past 4 or 5 years (conservatively). These people are so desperate to put a tag on a year that they seem to miss the irony of it.
Now we both agree that Mobile technology has come on phenomenally of late – and will continue to grow in various very impressive metrics and evolve technologically in amazing ways – but yet again (as with those people who were punting Video CVs as the “next big thing” 12-24months ago) the people making most noise are those who have a clear vested commercial interest in the sector being the next Klondike. And there’s nothing wrong with that per se – passionate people are needed to drive any emerging or fast evolving technology – but this doesn’t give any balance.
My iPhone is great – but like most people in the general public (and let’s remember it’s they who will determine what’s trully successful – not geeks, mobile businessmen and early adopters) when it comes to “doing something proper”, I turn to a laptop or desktop or even netbook. And I look forward to someday turning to an iPad or a Slate or a whatever. Because whilst I can indeed watch DVDs and TV on my MacBook – the TVs just better at it, so I mostly use that – and will probably always do so.
So here’s to your much needed shot of level headedness (that’s not a real word is it) that you’ve injected back into the debate.
Good read. I’m typing this on my iPad which is now my primary device, followed by my iPhone and then my desktop. For most things “it just works” as Mr Jobs has said time and again. It may not be a revolution but it’s a damn interesting ride!