Comments on: Which Web is the right Web for mobile?

By: Jon Cooper

Jon Cooper — Thu, 28 May 2009 07:11:41 +0000

Hi Ali – great topic – but can this be expanded upon a bit? There are three types of interfaces being compared, but the reference to the user engagement delta is a mention of 5 to 10 times more engagement on the iPhone app – first of all, what is this in comparison to, the full web site, the mobile web site, both? I suspect it’s probably in comparison to the full site but that wouldn’t have been hard to have guessed. More interesting would be the delta between the mobile site and the iPhone app. I would also like to know what CBS Sports figures are the factors that are contributing to that – after all, the app is news-oriented so it must depend on feeds, as does the mobile web site. Lastly, does CBS feel that with improvements the mobile web can equal or beat the native app? Cost of development must be cheaper, and the reach is much greater with the browser as platform.

Thanks,

– Jon

By: The Life and Times of AdMob » Blog Archive » April 2009 Mobile Metrics Report - Mobile Web vs. HTML

Wed, 27 May 2009 12:00:58 +0000

[...] But just because iPhone and Android overindex more today, it does not mean HTML sites will rule. Here is our take. We think that regardless of where the big players place their bets, it will be the consumer that [...]

By: April 2009 Mobile Metrics Report - Mobile Web vs. HTML « AdMob Metrics

April 2009 Mobile Metrics Report - Mobile Web vs. HTML « AdMob Metrics — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:00:06 +0000

By: Allkindsofthings

Allkindsofthings — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:17:20 +0000

Mobile users (and eventually that will apply to ANY user) don’t want something similar to an expereince.

They want (and if they should stay your customers the must get!) the best expereince of the web in context of the current usage as delivered to the device by the connections that is active right here and right now.

This is the key reason why Mobile Best practices were developed in the W3C under editorship from dotMobi with braod cross industry support from ISP, Handset Vendors and Mobile Operators, why the “mobileOK” framework was developed in the W3C jointly under editorship of Google with dotMobi and others, and why a standard way to figure out device properties (NO – NOT just guessing this from the User Agent) was developer in the W3C’s “device description working group”, resulting in http://deviceatlas.com being created.

We need to finally get RID of the idea that a mobile user could want an exerience like “push down his throat a desktop targeted web site with no consideration of his state of mobility, his device and the limited attention span for complex navigation”.

He who delivers an “experience to the max” on mobile, and does this in an easy to discover way, he will survive in the long run.

If you really want to understand why mobile is different, do a simple comparision of interaction steps that you need to run through with a PC with a mouse and tht you need to run through with a standard triple-layered keypad phone for the customer feedback page of your own web site.

Count each movement, keypress, selection and movement as a seperate step and note the different between your handset and your mouse usaage.

Everyone I know who tries this will see how shockingly bad absolutely MOST web site owners treant the largest installed base of users on this planet.

By: great leaders

great leaders — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:45:40 +0000

Thanks for the helpful information and analysis.

I hope readers here don’t form the impression that mobile sites do not use html – they are usually using the same (x)html as the non-mobile sites, the difference between the two is more to do with the size of screen they are scaled for, the size of the files they use, and the approach they take to navigation.