Is your website mobile friendly? If not, let’s not beat around the bush – what exactly are you waiting for? Think about your own behavior in the past year – how many times have you accessed a website from your Smart Phone? And how many times have you been frustrated when you couldn’t read the doggone thing because it wasn’t mobile friendly? If you’re like me, that answer is a ton. Or as my friend, Erika Napoletano likes to say, a metric ton.
According to Comscore, over 60 million people in the U.S. own Smart Phones. All the major Smart Phone platforms, especially Andriod, continue to gain subscribers at a rapid rate. If current sales trends continue at their 2010 pace, it’s possible that 50% of mobile phone customers will own a Smart Phone by the end of 2011. Yes, you read that correctly, 50%.
Hell’s bells, even my 73 year old Mother-in-Law has a Smart Phone — and she loves it.
Still not convinced? Morgan Stanley research estimates that by 2015, mobile web will be bigger than desktop.
That’s a lot of people accessing the Internet via their mobile phone. In fact, daily Internet usage via handheld device jumped from 29% in 2009 to 43% by the end of 2010. As more and more Smart Phone users are added each day, it’s easy to see the value of having a mobile friendly website.
Why Do People Keep Calling Me On My Computer??
I’ll bet there are some of you who’ve had that thought, aren’t there? In fact, I don’t think of my iPhone as a phone, it’s more of a handheld computer that lets me do everything I need to do – and sometimes more – no matter where I am. It’s my alarm clock, email delivery system, flashlight, address book, calendar, video view, game player, social media connector, camera, handheld computer, video camera, mobile payment device, QR code scanner — heck, if it could dry my hair and make me a cup of coffee, it might just replace every device I own. And I’ll bet many of you feel the same way.
50% of Small Business Owners Haven’t Even Thought to Check
And then there are small business owners. And sometimes large ones, too. Very few small businesses have websites that are mobile enabled. According to a 1&1 Internet, Inc. study, 50% of small businesses have never checked the appearance or functionality of their site on a Smart Phone. Never. Have you checked your website? Do you have a plan to take advantage of rapid Smart Phone growth and the dramatically increased use of the internet via a mobile device?
Most business owners don’t have the time or the expertise to figure out their next step. It’s easier and not as expensive as you think. Help is available if you need it. A mobile site may offer you more options than your current site.
If you’re thinking about creating a mobile app, make sure you consider mobilizing your existing website first. Don’t risk annoying your customers, losing them to your competitors or harming your brand with a web experience that doesn’t translate to a Smart Phone. And while apps are great, in our opinion, they aren’t the solution for every business.
Mobile Websites Are More Important Than Apps
Make sure that before you run off and invest a lot of money in developing an app, that you have a plan for how that app fits into your overall marketing plan. And, of course, how it is you’ll market that app. Having one and having people download and use it are two entirely different things. And having an app because it’s the latest bright, shiny toy is potentially a massive waste of money. I digressed.
You might have figured that in our book, a mobile website is, in most cases, infinitely more critical to your business operations than an app. And if you’re not sure, any marketing firm that you’re working with who’s worth their salt will have many conversations with you about that before leading you down the path of building an app. If they don’t, fire them.
V3’s Al Bonner not only handles a ton of new business development, he’s also what we like to call our Mobile King (behind his back, of course). If it has to do with mobile – whether it’s mobile web, app development, QR codes and the like, Al is our man. He’s also the owner of Presentation Transformations, a business that helps people take ordinary presentations and turn them into killer ones. Al created the following presentation for me for a recent event and it tells you everything you need to know about the mobile web. And I’m pretty sure that after you watch it, you’ll think differently about how much attention you’re currently paying to the mobile web.
Here is a summary of some of the key stats from the presentation.
- 130,000,000 new Smart Phones purchased each year in the U.S.
- In 2009, 51% of SmartPhone users owned an internet enabled device
- In 2010, 63% owned an Internet enabled phone
- Daily internet usage via handheld device jumped from 29% in 2009 to 43% by the end of 2010.
- Most websites look fine on a desktop computer or on a laptop. The same site on a phone can be a frustrating experience
- Most desktop websites were not designed to be viewed on the small screens of mobile devices. Fonts can be too small, navigation can be clunky, Flash simply won’t work, lengthy page loads, etc.
- More than 10 Billion apps have been downloaded to date.
- The Apple App Store has more that 350,000 apps available.
- The average person has 60 apps on each iDevice (iPad, iPhone, etc.)
- But, out of all those apps, 26% are used just once.
- The iPhone represents only 25% of the Smart Phone market
Don’t have a mobile enabled website? Get going!!