A mobile future?

A personalised web for personal devices

In 2005, mobile marketing accounted for $255 million and 2006 was proudly unveiled as ‘The year of Mobile’ with giant leaps in web usage anticipated. Three years on and slow connection speeds, expensive data charges, clunky devices and the complexity of modern websites have stalled progress. With the iPhone launching in June last year however, and its 3G equivalent leading the current surge of touch screen phones, the suggestion is that that moment isn’t far away.

With 71 million active mobile phones (with one in ten people owning 4 or more!!) it’s not surprising that the race is on to develop the perfect mobile device. However even with the most sophisticated Opera and Safari browsers optimising content for a portable device, one hindrance will always remain; the finite size of a mobile screen.

As a result it raises the question of not when but how our mobiles will be used to access the internet and this is something content providers need to start thinking about. What will encourage users to engage with my site on a 3 inch screen? The likes of eBay, the BBC and GCap are already there, providing downloadable applications or specially created xHTML content – how long before everyone else follows suit?