Chapter 1: What’s Going on in Mobile? By Peter-Paul Koch from “The Mobile Book”, by Smashing Magazine.
What’s Going on in Mobile? sheds light on the topic of the current Mobile environment, how it has come to be and where it can potentially go. Peter-Paul Koch’s (@ppk) extensive experience testing a plethora of Mobile devises, OS’s, and browsers offers the reader a terrifying anxiety invoking glimpse at the magnitude of an ever-changing Mobile world. In a nutshell, the Mobile realm is a massive landscape with a lot of players and while it may seem like a lot of extra work to get it “right”, isn’t that what we live for as web professionals?
In order to provide perspective on the Mobile environment, PPK walks us through the Mobile Value Chain. Basically, this chain consists of the Operators (“Rogers, Telus, Bell” in Canada), the Device Vendors (“Apple, Samsung”), and the OS Vendors (“iOS, Android”). This love/hate triangle, while eager to push new products and differentiate one another from the competition, ends up adding a lot more work for web professionals, and doesn’t always put the user’s best interest at the forefront. While a standard model for in-app purchases funneled through the user’s monthly bill probably won’t materialize anytime soon, it seems that the web remains the only cost effective way to create an app for more than one platform.
With a better understanding of the Mobile environment, this chapter goes on to discuss the caveats of Global and Regional statics as they relate to mobile users. The quality of these numbers is limited, but some data is better than no data. The recommendation is to focus more on regional and client data so that you can make decisions based on your target market. While being a purest is ideal, the realities of client budgets and ROI are what make the final decisions.
Living in Canada, which is predominately iOS, Android, Blackberry, and eventually Windows, I found the topic of Proxy Servers intriguing. I had heard of Opera Mini, but never really looked into the browser, so I downloaded it onto my iPhone to check it out. While the projects I have worked on are not targeting this particular demographic, I was intrigued by the value that Opera Mini is bringing to developing and less affluent markets. While seeing a static website with hotspots would seem like a throw-back to the stone ages (cue Dial-up tone), the web has always and will always be a way to share and communicate ideas around the world. Opera Mini is successfully inviting a massive market to join in the splendor of the web. Ultimately, more users will lead to more engagement, increased knowledge, and a greater collaboration of ideas.
As we consider the diversity and quality of the mobile landscape, it is clear that not every user is going to be viewing web content from the latest and greatest state of the art device. Even if they are, the challenges surrounding 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity can make a poorly developed web app the bane of a user’s existence. Don’t make me wait while I’m waiting! With this in mind, PPK advises imploring browser detection, which in his experience appears to be far superior to the desktop equivalent, and try to reduce the need to use an entire JavaScript library.
I have to admit that I am guilty of relying on jQuery and other JavaScript libraries, but so far have only applied them to desktop browser experiences. I have played around with jQuery Mobile, and while it is very well developed, I find that there is so much functionality that is not necessarily needed on every project. Therefore, targeted JavaScript for only the behaviors that are required is definitely the way to go.
On the topic of Tablets, PPK decides to lump them into the Desktop browser category from a statistics and a mobile perspective. While I understand the rational, such as “similar” screen size, and being “less” mobile, I still believe that Tablets are in a category of their own. Considering the diversity of Tablet devices in the market (Google Nexus, iPad Mini, Surface, etc.) and the fact that they are inherently touchscreen, shouldn’t a different user experience require an appropriate user interface? What makes this challenging from a data analyses standpoint is Tablets tend to get lumped into the Desktop or the Mobile category. As the tablet revolution continues, hopefully the lines will be more clearly defined so that web professionals can make UI decisions based on those stats.
Overall it is clear that there is a need to at least attempt to cater to all forms of Mobile, as daunting as this may seem. Financial realities will always a factor, but PPK makes a valid mantra to live by: “Never assume anything on Mobile. Never. Anything.”
More Resources
- StatCounter – Great Resource for Regional Stats
- Device Detection Services – WURFL, Device Atlas