Edelman Executive, Steve Rubel discusses Mobile Web importance, underscores MOBI

[Vision]

Edelman is dotMOBI's PR & Advertising agency. Edelman also represents Microsoft, MySpace, Heineken, UPS, Orange, Nokia, Bristol Meyers and several other Fortune 500 brands.

Edelman Executive and one of the world's most popular bloggers, Steve Rubel opines upon the the Mobile Web and consumer choice....

Here is the text:

The iPhone has completely changed how I interact with information on the go. When I travel I leave the notebook at home. I take the iPhone, an Airport Express for the hotel room (or anywhere) and an APC power pack for heavier use days. Everything else lives on a 8 GB USB stick or "the cloud." The exception is if I think I am going to need to create or edit rich content, like a Powerpoint deck.

Still, for all of the enthusiasm about the iPhone and it's ability to browse most of the broader web, it's made me realize that there will always be a place for the mobile Internet.

More than two-thirds of the time I am accessing the web from my iPhone, I am connecting to mobile or "iPhonized" sites that are in between the stripped down versions and the real thing. This includes when I am using wifi. I have two bookmarks for many of my favorite sites - one for the mobile or iPhone-specific version, another for the real thing.

That's bad news for web developers who are hoping that one day they won't need to re-code sites for handheld devices. The problem is they will always have to even if broadband is truly ubiquitous. The reason is cell phones and other gadgets are designed to fit in your hand. It doesn't matter if it's a PSP, a Treo or an iPhone or whatever comes next. From a UI perspective, mobile sites work beautifully on phones - as do information apps if the platform supports it.

This means web sites increasingly need to give consumers a choice when browsing from a mobile device. Many do not. They "sniff" what browser you're using and then serve up the site that will give you the best experience. The problem is that browser sniffing, particularly on devices like the iPhone, doesn't work because it supports all page formats. (Big disclaimer here: Edelman represents dot-mobi, but I don't personally consult to them.)

Consider weather.com, for example. The popular weather site determines your browser and then serves up a site that's best formatted for it. Enter the iPhone, however. There are times you want to browse the lite version and other times you want the big daddy. Unfortunately, they don't give you a choice and this in particular has caused some iPhone users to get upset.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is digg. You can browse the full version, a mobile site or an iPhone flavor. You get to decide.
The mobile web is far from dead but consumer choice is just as critical as these devices get more sophisticated.

Friday, July 27, 2007 at 12:03 PM in Mobile | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: iphone

Here is Steve Rubel's blog and article link:
http://www.micropersuasion.com/

dotMOBI CTO James Pearce comments upon Rubel's reader comments:

I think you're right.

Consumers should have a choice, and it's not that crazy that they can use the domain to indicate that choice. (I *choose* amazon.co.uk because the products are more relevant to me in the UK than amazon.com)

"Been to an airline web site on your iPhone recently? It works perfectly. You can read about their new flat beds. You can read about their co-branded credit card. You can read the history of the airline company. All beautifully draped with dreamy cloud backdrops and slick menus."

Right. But you're mobile. You're probably in a hurry. Let's face it, you are only really looking for the flight status of the plane you're rushing to catch. The fact you've gone to the effort of navigating to this company's site on your mobile suggests that you are on a mission.

In other words, multi-site site design is essential. Not because the browser on the phone is challenged in any way (although of course they still are right now). But because there's a human being on the other side of that screen who is in an entirely different context to those sat at a PC - and who deserves to have, by default, the functionality most suited to his or her mobility.

So it makes a lot of sense to have both .com and .mobi sites (which I think is what you're implying). The former is still available to all - including those mobile users (presumably with time to kill) who really *do* want to read about the new flat beds. But the latter provides, by default, a slick, efficient, well-crafted set of services relevant to the user's very specific mobile usage context.

James
(CTO dotMobi)


Posted by: James Pearce | Sunday, July 29, 2007 at 02:59 PM

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[PRED]

Quite a team they're assembling! wowzers.
Good to have him on board. Like what i hear.
cheers for article.