Demystifying Mobile technology for websites

by Ian Begg Marketer, Engineer

People are relying on mobile devices more than ever – and less on their PC`s. You may or may not be one of them considering you are here at Apsense for your business, and that makes it even more important that you realize, these devices are changing and evolving all the time (probably by the time I've written this it will need updating again :-)

Those who take notice and position themselves and their business at the leading edge of this unstoppable trend – by creating and servicing mobile websites – will benefit with the lions share of the profits to be made.

If you consider yourself a technophobe, and you`re feeling confused about what exactly is out there, and which devices can handle web access, here`s a quick overview of current mobile technology…

PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) – Think of this as a “pocket computer”. It`s a small, hand-held mutation between a cell phone, calculator and computer that allows you to use it as a:

Phone
Internet browser
Organizer
FAX

It can be operated by voice recognition and handwriting recognition – you can actually scribble real-time notes with a stylus (metal pen), which are then converted to “typed” notes. Data can be synced with your computer. It usually comes as a stylus version, a keyboard (Datapad) version, or a combination of both – and, of course, the latest ones also operate off “touch” screens.

Palm Pilot – The original digital organizer, it now comes with the capacity to browse the internet.

SmartPhone – This one is the current rising star of 21st century life. It`s the most effective combination personal computer/mobile phone/PDA… but it looks just like a mobile phone, to the uninitiated.

You can use it:

As a storage device for information
As an Email browser
For installing programs and apps (applications)
Browsing the web
Taking photographs
Managing your social networking

These mobile devices all run off different operating systems than computers, the most widely used ones being Windows Mobile, Symbian OS and Palm OS.

Tablet PC – This small notebook type portable computer operates with a stylus. You jot notes on the screen and it`s either converted to “typed” text or kept as handwritten – your preference. (You can also use your stylus to tap out “typed” messages on a simplified “keyboard”.)

Netbooks - A “Netbook” is nothing more or less than a low-end notebook. They are the smallest of all laptop computing type devices, and run on either Linux or Windows XP. They are not meant for sophisticated, memory-hogging programs, being noticeably under-powered. Graphics are integrated, but they do run with Wi-Fi and have USB ports for headphones. Microsoft has allowed them to run Windows 7 as of this writing. They are very basic, and you definitely have to consider this when creating mobile websites. Yet they still get the job done.

Notebooks - Larger version of Netbooks. A few more bells and whistles, and everything is integrated: You cannot, for example, add more memory or change a graphics card.

Laptop Computer - Portable PC, with many of the same features and sometimes even more capacity than older PC's. Its innards can be customized easily (new graphics cards inserted, more memory added, etc.)

With this in mind, it is more important now to make sure your business websites are mobile ready. (I'm still working on mine :-)

HTL wireless has published a website with their top 20 FREE mobile website providers listed, which may give you food for thought for your business.

However, IMO I would also check out Webs (the provider my Life is an Adventure site) as they have some really cool tools and can automatically make your site mobile ready.

For you longer term internet users, you may remember WEBS when they used to be known as freewebs.com before changing their name in 2008.

I hope you found this information of use

Ian

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About Ian Begg Marketer, Engineer

360 connections, 3 recommendations, 1,078 honor points.
Joined APSense since, March 13th, 2010, From Sydney, Australia.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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Comments

Philippe Moisan

Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer
Wow, I am thinking of getting an Android phone, since I already have an iPad, and it could be useful to learn both for marketing with mobile devices. Awesome article, Ian :)
Aug 23rd 2011 14:59