With the launch of Google’s Nexus One today, we thought it would be important to talk about the importance of designing websites for mobile browsing in the new year. The numbers are in for December 09’: mobile browsing now accounts for 1.3% of all internet browsing. To the pedestrian, that might not seem like a large amount of users, but when put compared to December of 08’, there’s a big difference. Just one year ago, only 0.55% of all internet browsing was done on mobile platforms. We can only expect this number to grow exponentially in the coming year. With the prevalence of usable smartphones that provide a decent browsing experience going up, and the prices of these devices going down (with 2 year service agreements of course), we will see the amount of smartphone users continue to rise. As more people acquire smartphones and required lucrative data packages, mobile browsing will only continue to rise.

For me personally, I continually use my iPhone to surf the web and read news. However, when it comes to news and information, I am much more likely to go to websites that have mobile versions. It’s not that the phone can’t handle a traditionally formatted site, it’s just that sites designed for at least a 1024×768 screen resolution take a good amount of time to load and are not easily navigable on a small touch screen. Mobile versions are quickly loaded, formatted for small screen viewing/navigation, and take few system resources to run.

2009 was definitely the year that saw all the major cell phone manufacturers and service providers bringing usable mobile devices to the playing field. We also can’t forget the importance and growing usage of Apple’s iPod Touch for web usage as well. In the end, I feel that in 2010 we will see an explosion of web usage on mobile devices. There’s really never been a more important time than now to have a mobile version of your website. It’s a really good idea to be ready for this forthcoming explosion, and we’re here to make it happen. Give us a call or shoot us an email to find out about ProVim’s mobile web design services. We’ll design you a quick and easily navigable site for mobile devices that will give you the competitive edge in the web marketplace. So check it out, and get ready for the next decade mobile integration!

Tags: Android, Apple, AT&T, Google, iPhone, iPod Touch, mobile browsing, mobile design, Nexus One, Palm Pre, ProVim, smartphone, usability, Verizon, web design