Taking the Web to the Desktop, Part 2: Mobile Sites

January 4th, 2008 Posted by Don Albrecht

I know what you’re thinking, mobile aps run on cellphones and smartphones, not PC’s. Mobile sites are one of the most important and pervasive aspects of this hybrid web ecosystem. Unlike desktops and laptops, mobile sites can assume that the cellular device they are displayed on will have a persistent and portable net connection. Because of this benefit, mobile sites can be viewed as intermediaries to be used with a user may not have access to a traditional internet connection.

Unfortunately, mobile platforms are and always will be limited devices. There simply is no way to put all of the screen real estate of even the smallest monitor into a device that will fit into someones pocket without resorting to origami voodoo. Higher screen resolutions help the situation, but there are limits to the human visual system and 6pt font is almost as eligible on paper as it is on any digital screen.

Other restrictions abound surrounding the mobile platform. From a user interface perspective it’s still a bit of the wild west and mobile browsers have tended to be flaky, inconsistent and underpowered. Safari, Opera and Minimo make significant strides towards eliminating these issues and providing a much richer platform on which to develop. Many cellphones also provide API’s to enable mobile aps to look consistent with, act like and interface with the underlying device.

The inconsistencies across platforms still make mobile devices a difficult nut to crack in terms of development. As browsers, bandwidth and processing power improves, expect developing for them to increasingly less frustrating and in higher demand from users.