tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31452641.post7042263600948058113..comments2008-12-09T07:34:20.741-08:00cjohansenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586015995851098931noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31452641.post-84837560322335261392008-12-09T07:34:00.000-08:002008-12-09T07:34:00.000-08:00As an employee of dotMobi – the company behind the .mobi domain – I should say that browser advances and high-end handsets don’t address the mobile context. <BR/><BR/>In mobile, context is everything.<BR/>One of the great benefits of the iPhone is that it means more people are trying out the mobile web rather than just talking about it. With that comes an awareness of the challenges of making content work in the mobile context.<BR/><BR/>However, for the same reason that reading a broadsheet newspaper on an airplane is not a great experience, a good mobile web experience is not about trying to reproduce what's on your PC. Given a choice between …<BR/><BR/>1. a site well-designed for mobile use, and <BR/>2. the extra work you have to do to zoom in and out and scroll in all directions to read a page laid out for a big screen on a tiny one, <BR/><BR/>… there's no choice at all, you'll go with the one designed for mobile use.<BR/><BR/>Also, while the iPhone browser removes many of the constraints of today's average mobile browser, there's no magic that can suddenly turn the world's millions of PC-based web sites into something contextually relevant for mobile users. <BR/><BR/>For example, search for coffee on a PC. Are you looking to order an exotic blend? Recipes? A color of paint? <BR/><BR/>On your mobile phone? Likely, where's the nearest cafe?<BR/><BR/>That's one good reason why made-for-mobile content works best on mobile. Another one is the time taken to download desktop pages on mobile devices, and associated data costs (unless you're lucky enough to have a flat data plan).<BR/><BR/>As a side note, there are more than 80,000,000 .com / .net / .org sites but only 0.05% are mobile friendly. <BR/> <BR/>Since the general availability of .mobi in September 2006, more than 1,000,000 .mobi domains have been registered, and are actively used and promoted by thousands of top brands around the world. See a small sampling of those at http://mtld.mobi/node/997. <BR/><BR/>There's obviously a strong interest in made-for-mobile content. And rather than thinking of it as a ghetto, perhaps it's better to think of it as an opportunity ... just like thousands of brands around the world do.Vancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16189331788327526469noreply@blogger.com