Exploding mobile market demands serious vigilance

February 9, 2009

Nisheeth Mohan is product manager for mobile solutions and technology at Keynote Systems

By Nisheeth Mohan

Worldwide mobile data service revenues were targeted to come in at a record-breaking $200-plus billion in 2008, according to Informa PLC.

In addition, Informa's Ovum unit released a report late last year predicting data services growing 79 percent globally over the next five years. One of the drivers, I believe, is the rapid pace of acceptance of the smartphone.

The year 2008 was when the smartphone really took off. First introduced in July of 2007, the revolutionary Apple iPhone offered, among other things, its true -- if small -- rendering of online Web site content and its touch screen.

Last year, Apple brought out its updated iPhone version which was soon followed by a flurry of similarly capable smartphones from major mobile device manufacturers.

With the introduction of Apple's software development kit, Google's Android and BlackBerry's RIM development platform, the potential for developing and deploying mobile content independent of the carrier is beginning to emerge.

We can expect mobile content providers to take advantage of these development platforms in 2009.

However, while smartphones offer the real potential to act as an extension of the Internet experience, managing user expectations is important for mobile sites.

In 2008, Keynote conducted an extensive usability study on the iPhone and found that a Web site that was perceived to be superior on the desktop could receive an inferior rating on a mobile device.

Increasingly, users will expect that mobile will act as it does on the desktop.

However, there are many factors in play with mobile navigation, and content providers cannot expect that mastery of Web content will necessarily result in domination of mobile.

Adapting content to a phone presents a host of technical obstacles to overcome. With the low barriers for switching from your mobile Web site to one that better meets a user's needs, you want to understand what they need and be prepared to provide it.

The above-mentioned study highlights three key points for content providers.

First, you cannot assume that perceptions on the Internet will carry over to into mobile. What may appear good on a 22-inch monitor is not ideal for the 2-inch LCD. The sites are inherently more difficult to navigate and a good mobile content strategy is required.

Second, speed, reliability and usability are even more important on mobile as customers have expectations carried over from the desktop even if they do not use them in the same way.

Mobile will have a difficult time keeping up with the high bar set for Internet performance.

Finally, the differences between the mobile and Internet experiences are substantial. As more people access the Web via a mobile device, the importance of this gap must be understood.

Optimizing content for a mobile device is clearly critical, and even with smartphones, content is not directly transferrable from one phone to the next.

The importance of performance testing and measuring cannot be understated to succeed in the mobile market.

Yet a November survey of 186 mobile content professionals revealed that 38 percent said that they do not test their mobile site and another 11 percent did not know whether they did or not.

The winners of the mobile world have yet to be determined.

As a marketer, you want your company at the top of the list. Make sure that an ongoing test and monitoring strategy is a part of your 2009 mobile content program. It could be the edge that puts you over the top.

Nisheeth Mohan is product manager for mobile solutions and technology at Keynote Systems Inc., San Mateo, CA. Reach him at .