Let's talk quickly on timely topics to elevate your web strategy. Fellow developers will be addressed as well, but in small doses, and wherever possible, in common-speak.
Hi, my name is Dan, and I’m the newest member of the CGI team (not the Dan who posted previously on this blog). My background and current duties are in systems administration and programming.
My mantra is; “Empowering people with the tools necessary to achieve excellence”. I’ve learned that by making things simple and intuitive you can help develop standards while streamlining current processes. This saves time all the way around helping others become more efficient while resulting in higher quality.
Imagine a world where what you needed was simply where you needed it and not in a different program or 10 clicks away… With a well engineered solution and an intuitive interface, this can become a reality. Helping to save both time and money.
Enter the era of mobile devices… Over the past year, mobile devices have seen allot of growth. Gone are the days where we were limited to a few lines of text visible on a monochrome display while on the run. The success of Blackberry’s, i-Phones, smart phones and internet ready mobile devices have companies such as Google, Intel and Microsoft jumping in to the market. Undoubtedly these devices will continue to change the way we do business.
Perhaps one of the most exciting and innovative of the recent changes is the release of Google’s Android platform. Android is a free (Linux based) mobile phone platform. This means mobile phone providers don’t have to invest money in to building basic software to make a smart-phone work! This should help lower costs.
More interesting still is the fact that Android was developed to allow applications to speak with one another and share information. This is a much needed practical change. No more managing multiple contact lists or typing in names of contacts when scheduling events on your calendar. Yes, your maps program can now talk to your GPS providing pin point directions. But this is just the start; think of how mobile devices like this could help your business?
As we progress into the new millennium the importance of staying connected within an informational based society grows in parallel to the advancement that technology affords it. The ability to stay ‘within the loop’ of 21st century communication will become exponentially paramount as a growing reliance on connectivity permeates itself through both the professional and personal realms of life. Devices and the software that drives them will only continue to grow in both complexity and specialization so it’s no doubt that an environment as such would create a paradigm of ease-of-use versus elaboration. It’s those that are able to provide services that bridge this paradigm that will lead the information industry into the next decade and beyond. Leaders, both professional and otherwise would be prudent to position themselves and their organizations at the forefront of the digital tsunami that will only continue to get larger and more prevalent. Sink or swim will become the mantra of all brave souls who wish to compete in tomorrow’s informational network superstructure.
The ability to access one’s own information easily will be Paul-bearer of the 21st century technology. Mobile devices are only beginning to bring forth the web to its users as they develop their infrastructures literally as fast as they can. As wireless networks grow in both speed and reliability, organizations should see as steady increase of users who use their mobile devices as their primary access point to Internet. The question then imposes itself….what does this mean to businesses that wish to capitalize upon this movement? The answer itself lies within building applications that maximize one’s message within the mobile world’s boundaries to the best of their ability. The mobile web environment is most certainly different than the Internet we have grown accustomed to over the past 10 years of so. From the speed of the connectivity itself to the wide array of technical specs in terms of size and computing power from one device to another, user experience can differ greatly depending on ones choice of device. To further compound the complexity of the mobile web, the industry at large has seemed opposed to any form of standardization that would help those who wish to develop rich Internet applications on their platforms as whole. This resistance has posed a huge burden on companies because they must often create several versions of one application or simply forgo a popular device altogether due to limited resources. The ability to navigate the seemingly endless one-offs can be achieved by developing simple, yet elegant web applications that intelligently adapt and capitalize on hardware in which their being ran on.
Creating robust, versatile mobile web applications is the key to success for the future of any company or organization. By developing a web infrastructure that caters specifically to the mobile web one will be able to establish themselves as a truly anytime-anywhere company that has embraced the mobile web in a positive way. Future consumers will only grow to appreciate the organization that provided them with ability to access their goods, services, and information literally from anywhere.
As we are continuing with our work in developing both CelleCast.com and EchoLearn.com for mobile, we can now say that we have full expertise in not only making your mobile site work, but work very elegantly with your current web strategy. There is no need for companies to build a different site and manage the content separately, as long as you have a development partner who knows what we know: auto-detect browsers, cross-link versions based on cookies, use dynamic header/footer file includes, mobile SEO, and customize site based on handset type.
When you are serious about developing your web-app to work on the go, contact us. There are 40 million active mobile internet users in the US alone, waiting for you to catch on.
Here are the key takeaways from Nielsen Mobile’s July 2008 report on the Mobile Web:
Key Takeaways
• The US, UK and Italy are leaders in mobile Internet
penetration. 15.6 percent of mobile subscribers in
the US, 12.9 percent of subscribers in the UK and
11.9 percent in Italy actively use the mobile Internet
• We believe mobile Internet has reached a critical
mass as an advertising medium in the US. As of
May 2008, there were 40 million active users of the
mobile Internet in the US, with individual sites that
attract millions of unique users. This provides
scalable marketing potential with demographic
breadth.
• Unlimited data packages are an important part of
the growth of the mobile Internet and are
increasingly popular with US consumers. Today 14
percent of US wireless subscribers have unlimited
data packages, and 50 percent of data users say
they would prefer to have such a package.
• 3G networks are greatly improving the quality of the
mobile Internet experience and will help drive
customer satisfaction with mobile Internet. 3G
networks perform up to six times faster on data
throughputs used for mobile Internet than 2G and
2.5G networks.
• Yahoo! Mail is the most popular mobile website in
the US, with 14 million unique visitors per month, as
of May 2008
• Mobile Internet provides audience “lift”—added
reach over home PC traffic, at an average of 13%
for leading mobile websites in the US
• As mobile Internet publishers build out an
advertising inventory, advertising is becoming a
common part of the mobile Internet experience: 26
percent of mobile Internet users recall seeing some
form of advertising while using the mobile Internet.
Mobile Internet users are 60% more likely to be
open to mobile advertising than the average mobile
data user.
