The Mobile Web

If you believe that mobile is a strong medium to reach your customers – you need to be thinking about how your brand will evolve on the mobile web.  Today you have a few interesting options and they are not mutually exclusive.

As consumers wake up to the idea that they can actually reach the internet on their phone, we are about to see an explosion of new mobile devices;  ITouch, Kindle, “netbooks” and even Sony Playstation Portable already are rapidly changing the ‘connection’ landscape.

What is a marketer to do? 

First and foremost, every marketing executive should do a quick experiment and look at how their current “desktop” website looks on various mobile devices.  Not great?  We thought so.  Though iPhone may deliver a version of your current desktop site – it is likely not an optimal experience either (too much pinch & zoom is not good) and certainly won’t cover most of the mobile internet user base.

Next question: Do you really need a separate mobile site? 

Yes you need a mobile site…  Why?  One of the fastest growing activities people are doing on the mobile web today is search.  The growth of mobile search is soaring!  Further Google’s mobile traffic has quintupled since 2007 that growth will continue as smart phone penetration rises around the globe!  They are looking for you and it will be important to be there with a great mobile site experience for your mobile viewers.

The good news is that it is easy to make your website mobile friendly.  There are a few ways to do this, some require custom work others leverage mobile web tools.    At MoFuse we aim to help speed your way to a mobile site.  We also take the pain out of managing and editing that site over time.  Check us out at:  www.mofusepremium.com .

Well then, what about Apps?

The iPhone changed the game for the downloadable application or “App”.  Apple got the storefront right and helped to ignite the mobile app as a standard in the mobile ecosystem.  Today over 1 billion apps have been downloaded from the Apple iPhone app store alone!  Everyone else has followed- so consumers can also buy downloadable apps from carriers like Verizon or newer storefronts just for phones such as Google’s Android or Nokia’s new Ovi.  Apps are cool, often fun, and useful  - those are the key elements you will want to architect into your app if you go that way.   Today about 25 million people tap into apps, Cnet reports that the number of users who will tap into the App store will be at 100 million by 2013!

While having a mobile site is ‘table stakes’, deciding to go with an app requires another level of consideration.  The growing number of mobile app options is staggering.  Today Apple offers over 40,000 apps in their store.  Nokia is about to release their app store, Ovi with over 20,000 apps.  The Android store is built to grow apps even more quickly as they offer an ‘open’ environment for programmers.  Don’t forget the Blackberry app store… Wheeew!  So the first question is where do you fit in?  Should you build an app for each individual device (store)? Just for iPhone or Blackberry?

Second consider how will people find your app?  Finding a brand’s mobile app will continue to be a challenge as apps multiply quickly.  Standing out in the app crowd is a key issue for marketers.

Third, what should your app do?  You’ll want to consider how to get the most brand engagement as the data shows that apps with practical use work best at long term, continued usage.

That said – is an app right for every brand?  The answer is no-  not every brand or storefront needs an app.  Today they are the “new” thing but longer term the mobile ecosystem will evolve.

We believe the pattern of usage of the mobile web today makes it imperative to have a user-friendly mobile site that works on every phone (like you can build at MoFuse).  Depending on your business objectives you should consider apps carefully and of course SMS messaging.