Industry Trends

Is the iPhone the End of the .mobi Domain?

eleyden — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:47:59 +0000

Is The iPhone The End Of The .mobi Domain?

Since its launch two years ago, the Apple iPhone has generated more press and Web site coverage than any other mobile phone ever has, and, undoubtedly, it’s one of the most capable handsets ever released. It has also raised the level of competition with other manufacturers delivering ever more innovative handsets. But do these advanced capabilities render the .mobi domain obsolete?

Short answer: no.

Longer answer: the iPhone is a giant leap forward for the mobile Web in general, and .mobi specifically. The mobile Web has not been -- and never will be -- the desktop Web rendered on a mobile phone screen. The physical difference in size and the different navigation control schemes of mobile phones and desktop-based PCs demand separate treatment. The iPhone does nothing to change this.

For example, the image to the right is the home page of the New York Times; it delivers a great experience on a desktop browser, mimicking a traditional multi-column newspaper. This format, however, simply does not translate to a mobile phone screen. The nytimes.com site uses a desktop resolution of 1024x768 pixels, which is enough to fill the iPhone’s 320x480 pixel screen five times over.

The story does not end there. There’s often more information “below the fold” than visible above it. (“Below the fold” is a traditional newspaper terms that has carried over to Web deisgn and refers to the area of the screen that is not initially visible when the page first loads, but one sees on further vertical scrolling).

With the New York Times, the complete home page comprises five full screens of information, for a combined resolution of 1024x3840. That’s enough to fill the iPhone screen some thirty times over. Navigating this quantity of information is nearly impossible on a mobile device – and that includes the iPhone.

The art of creating great mobile sites is understanding that context – not just content – is king. Understanding how and when somebody will want to access your site via mobile becomes crucial to knowing what content to offer. As an example, the typical corporate site of a courier company may contain sections with company history, press releases, investor relations and any number of other things that are of no use to a mobile customer who likely wants an address to drop a package or to track a delivery. This being the case, why make that mobile customer wade through the entire contents of a desktop site to find what they are looking for? The “pinch / zoom” functionality of the iPhone is sometimes presented as the solution to this navigation problem but, again, the context in which the product is being used isn’t considered. In the vast majority of situations, mobile phones are used with one hand. In these circumstances, the pinch / zoom functionality is useless. Anybody who commutes regularly via public transport is all too aware of such situations and the limitations of the pinch / zoom.

Fast forward to the near future when the majority of people are using their mobile phones to access the Web as regularly as they use their desktop PCs today. Do you think that successful companies will continue to serve desktop sites to their mobile audience? Of course, the answer is no. People will simply not have the patience to work through unwieldy sites to find the information they want; they will simply move on to companies who understand their needs.

In light of this, the iPhone – and every other smartphone – fails to change very much for mobile Web access. The crucial element is understanding the mobile user’s needs and serving them appropriate content. As long as this need exists, which it always will, there will be a need to easily find mobile content. This is the role of the .mobi domain as the only industry-backed, ICANN-approved designation for mobile Web content.

But wait ... what about apps?

Doesn’t the New York Times have an iPhone app? Isn’t that the solution to this whole mobile Web thing? Yes, they have an app. And no, apps are not a solution. The iPhone app for the New York Times does a great job of displaying content on the iPhone. However, it works only on iPhones and only with the New York Times. It does not work on any other smartphone and it does not work with USA Today, the Financial Times, Le Monde, Sydney Morning Hearld, or any of the other thousands of publications around the world. You may have an app to locate the nearest pizza house but then you also need apps for every other type of cuisine, apps to find gyms, etc. Apps are a stopgap solution; they are not a long-term solution to finding mobile Web content.

The iPhone is a superb handset that has raised the bar for every other handset manufacturer, but it changes nothing in regards to mobile content and context. The future power-players of the mobile Web will be those companies who serve mobile-specific content. This is already in action with the world’s top brands; many of them are already creating device-aware sites that recognize the specific handset being used and serve content that is optimized for that device. The iPhone has raises awareness of the mobile Web with consumers around the world and prompted operators to look at flat rate data packages. For those changes alone, we should all be grateful.

For other articles about the .mobi domain click here .

UK sees huge mobile web traffic growth

jfoley — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:32:17 +0000

Manchester-based Tecmark have just released a report on the state of mobile web traffic in the UK. The report Mobile and Web Traffic was based on data analysis of a number of websites in various areas and it included between 1.5 million and 2.3 million web visits.

The report breaks down traffic by platform and, in the case of iOS, by device. The findings show Android and iPad traffic slowly growing, BlackBerry in decline and iPhone traffic sharply rising since October 2010.

Finance sector’s mobile ad spend up more than 1,000pc

jfoley — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:56:52 +0000

Spend has increased in the financial sector on mobile during the second quarter of 2011 by an astonishing 1,095 percent, according to a new report by Millennialmedia.

“The mobile space has simply grown astronomically,” said Mack McKelvey, SVP of marketing at Millennial Media, Baltimore, MD.

Not alone has the financial sector soared, there has also been a huge increase in spend from retail on mobile, 956 percent during the second quarter compared with the second quarter of 2010. Other verticals also jumps, 426 percent for pharmaceuticals, 236 percent for automotive, 234 percent for entertainment and 145 percent for travel.Read more at Mobile Marketer.

Unilever misses mark on mobile ad campaign

jfoley — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:00:12 +0000

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, producers Unilever have dropped the ball on their latest mobile ad campaign. Although the concept and creative were perfect, the execution fell short of the mark.

Marlon Rodrigue, director of alliances at Polar Mobile, Toronto identified the problems that Unilever and other major brands are failing to addressing when launching mobile web campaigns.

“It is extremely important for brands to consider what web presence they send end users to on their mobile device, the minority of brands actually produce a usable, let alone great, experience,” he said.

“The simple truth is that if brands don’t give their mobile users a simple way to engage, the whole value of driving the user to the page is lost, likely causing their campaign to under-perform.

CNN Mobile's VP takes both sides of the mobile Web vs. native app debate

jfoley — Thu, 19 May 2011 15:55:45 +0000

In a recent article published in Fierce Mobile Content, Louis Gump vice president of mobile at CNN, talks about CNN’s mobile strategy to date. Louis acknowledges that both mobile web and the native apps are of vital importance in their mobile strategy and identifies what each brings to the table;

“mobile Web is something where you can build once and serve many, so we have some sections up on mobile Web time from time that we simply don't build into our apps because of the transitory nature of those sections. So I think mobile Web is a little more flexible.”

When Louis was questioned about what kind of traffic CNN was seeing, and what were the most popular mobile platforms for CNN? The response and figures were staggering.

“mobile Web is critically important and the hub of our mobile business. In that area, according to Nielsen in February, the CNN digital network reached about 17.5 million unique users--so lots of usage.”

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Read more at Fierce Mobile Content.

As mobile banking adoption grows, banks must focus on services: Forrester

jfoley — Thu, 12 May 2011 10:24:42 +0000

The State of US Mobile Banking a report by Forrester Research indicates that the uptake of mobile banking by US adults has more than doubled in the past two years. In the fourth quarter of 2010, 16 percent of US adults were using mobile banking. Further predictions suggest there will be a growth of an average of 20 percent over the next five years to reach 50 million U.S. adults by 2015.

The top four uses of mobile banking found by the report were, 70 percent are using their mobile to check balances, 33 percent are viewing their transaction history, 30 percent are transferring money between their own accounts and 27 percent are paying bills via their mobile device.

QR code scanning increases by 4,549pc: study

jfoley — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:56:00 +0000

A recent Mobio Identity Systems study revealed that there was a 4,549 percent growth of QR codes in the first quarter of 2011 on a year over year basis. This massive growth figures now supports those who consider QR codes to be more than a one off medium. Marketers now can utilize the ability to change their codes in ad’s as often as every day, which leads to and allows ongoing dialogue with customers.

The report The Naked Fact: Whiplash Edition identified those between the ages of 35 and 44 interact with QR code most frequently. Read more at QR code scanning increases by 4,549pc: study.

Mobile web: the game changed

jfoley — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:02:08 +0000

The impact that mobile handsets are having in comparisons to desktop devices sale has forced change of emphases in the marketer’s playbook. The mobile platform for internet is going to become a core part of the way people interact with e-commerce, so people must be able to do things when they want to do them.

This means the web will need to be designed for the mobile. It’s realistic to expect some businesses to achieve 50% of web sales via mobile. If the consumer wants to order their daily shopping while watching the television, or sitting on the train, then that’s what they are going to do.

Also revealed in the The Mobile Shopping Framework Study a white paper from Yahoo that provides an overview of the mobile landscape. In the report, half of consumers claim they purchase an item after researching on their mobile, and 90% of mobile owners access the web from the retail store floor!

So, bottom line whichever website allows users to achieve easy and convent access, with the best user experience, will most likely get the business. Read more at Mobile thinking: the game changed.

Cricket’s world cup was huge for mobile media

jfoley — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:17:18 +0000

ESPN have seen the hype of the mobile web come to fruition after creating a mobile site for their ESPNcricinfo desk top site. ESPN have released figure illustrating the mobile version of its ESPNcricinfo site accounted for 45 million or 45 percent of all the brand’s page views the during the Cricket World Cup Final held on the 2 April.

This accounted for the highest share of any of the digital media through which ESPN covered the sporting event, also it should be noted that this doesn’t include the app version of ESPNcricinfo. Read more at paidContent.org.

Mobile web users in western Europe to double by 2015

jfoley — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:10:34 +0000

A case study completed by eMarketer recently showed that those mobile web users in countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are set to double between 2010 and 2015. It’s interesting to note, that at least 58million citizens among the EU-5 will use their mobile internet on a monthly basis, this figure is less than a quarter of the population.

As companies in the EU have recognised that their costumer is both mobile savvy and warm to mobile marketing, we have seen more experienced companies moving from one-off direct response campaigns to efforts aimed at driving awareness and ongoing customer engagement. Read more at Mobile Web Users in Western Europe to Double by 2015.