When I made the decision a few weeks ago to purchase a tablet I started to do some preliminary research.  To that point in time, I really hadn’t investigated what was available. Sure, I’d heard about the e-reading manufacturers branching out in to the mobile browsing market, but I wasn’t quite sure to what extent.

What I found I really surprised me. There were no fewer than 12 seemingly good options from a hardware standpoint that were available.  This got me to thinking about how we, as the web and software development industry, will deal with the explosion of available devices that should be accounted for from both a technical and strategic standpoint.

Do we test against Amazon’s Kindle Fire Browser? If so, how do we account for the upgrade that will be released mid-way through a project? I would think that they’ll be enough browser versions, hardware types, and screen sizes to make all of our heads spin.

I’m not sure that the businesses we serve have fully adapted to the explosion in HTML browser compatible smart phones yet. Now they need to be budgeting for design and testing considerations for screens ranging in size from 3 to over 10 inches in size as well? What a challenge awaits our industry, along with the marketing industry, as we go through these changes!

For the time being, I suppose that we’ll all do our best to identify key systems and audiences like we always have, we’ll just have to broaden our view of what the possible answers could be. It probably won’t be so simple as to account for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android devices any longer. You’d have to expect that budgets will be raised to account for these key users and their respective platforms. 2012 is going to be an interesting year for our industry and I am excited to see how these changes affect the way in which we approach our work.

And…for the record, I did end up going with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. I’ve had good luck with the Android platform to date, although the app selection does seem to be a little less well-developed than the iPad offerings, but I’ll save that for another post on another day.

Merry Christmas Everyone and happy Tablet-ing!

The first step in understanding the differences in strategy between the two is to understand the difference between a mobile website and a
“mobile friendly” website.

“Mobile Friendly” websites on the other hand, utilize traditional web design, but are developed in such a way that they will display accurately on a mobile device. In this way, the website will work on a mobile device, but because of the difference in the size of the display area, the user must manipulate the site to find the information they seek.

Because of this difference in display size, and the poor user experience it can create, a best practice is to account for the mobile user while design your website. This specialized mobile interface is customized to the smaller display areas of mobile devices and is automatically loaded when a user visits your site via a mobile device.

In order to make maximum the use of the smaller display area, while ensuring the smoothest user experience, you should streamline the immediately available information within the mobile design. This is probably done shortening the navigation of the site.

Another difference between a traditional website made to be ‘mobile friendly’ and a truly mobile website, is the bandwidth, and subsequent load times, of a mobile device. With this consideration in mind, you should also look to limit the size and quality of the images you select. Smaller, less high resolution images load faster and, due to the smaller overall display, look no different than their traditional (full high resolution coupled with large display area) counterparts.

Combine all three of these techniques and you’ll have a good looking, fast loading, and easy to navigate version of your website that caters to the mobile user. This leads to a positive user experience and an increased awareness of your company and your products or services.

Let’s take a quick look at Panera Bread as an example. The first photo below is of their traditional website. Large high resolution images highlight a full featured website with a full navigation system. This works splendidly in a traditional desktop environment where a high speed connection
and full display is readily available.

This second photo from Panera Bread is of their mobile website interface. As you can see, they shortened the navigation system and made use of smaller images. This causes the site to load faster, while presenting users with specific information that a mobile user might be looking for. The end result is a great case study on understanding the differences between traditional and mobile environments.

Ergo Audrey

But Audrey was short lived.  Shortly after launch the dot-com bust began.  We began to see our content providers go out of business one by one.  People began losing trust in the internet and were not buying Audrey.  But we felt the biggest issue was that we were ahead of the times.  Consumers were still buying buying their first computers and were getting online for the first time.  So buying a fancy internet appliance was not something conceivable and so 3Com cut Audrey and the Internet Appliance division.

Verizon Hub

Just recently I began seeing TV commercials about Verizon Wireless’ new phone – the Verizon Hub.  I nearly jumped out of my chair when I saw the first commercial.  It was almost like seeing Audrey all over again.  I have to admit that although envious I am excited to see the Hub launch.  The Hub is meant to serve as the family hub – similar to Audrey’s approach.  Yes, Audrey was ahead of the times but I am convinced that it paved the way for products like The Hub and hopefully more to come in the future.  I also believe that everything happens for a reason so because of Audrey’s failure I have been able to start up my own business.  I learned a lot during my days at 3Com and I thank the guys at 3Com and especially Jen, Daniel and Chris for showing me the ropes, giving a rookie a chance and being a pretty darn good team.