Of all the Internet innovations over the past five or six years, few will disagree that the mobile web is by far the most important.
As web developers, we're accustomed to rapid change, but the rapid change in the usage of the mobile web has caught many people both within the industry and without, totally off guard.
As recently as 2008, visitors to websites that we have developed for clients used laptops and desktop computers virtually 100% of the time. Thanks to Google Analytics and the manufacturers of mobile web devices, we've watched the numbers grow at an incredible rate.
Just in the past year, mobile device views of a website we developed for Pioneer Supply Company of Madisonville, Kentucky - http://inbysupply.com - have grown from less than 20% to almost 50%! We've seen the same kinds of numbers with the other websites we've developed as well, including this one.
Still, there are a lot of companies who are holding off on making the transition to mobile-friendly websites. Why? There are several reasons, but the main one is the cost. Some of the larger companies have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars developing the website they have now. The very idea of changing it to be mobile-friendly causes them to have nightmares.
But the cost of NOT offering a mobile solution to viewers will probably be even higher because of the mindset of mobile Internet users. We (since I am one) tend to act like spoiled children when it comes to our Internet access and the cold statistics bear that out. According to Digital Buzz,
- 91% of all people on earth have a mobile phone
- 56% of people own a smart phone
- 50% of mobile phone users, use mobile as their primary Internet source
- 80% of time on mobile is spent inside apps
- 72% of tablet owners purchase online from their tablets each week
Here's the bad part.
