Treefrog Interactive Inc.

Mobile Compatibility & Websites

Does your website need to work on cell phones?

The world takes its web to go these days. Over half a billion people visited the web on their cell phones in 2009, and that number is expected to double by 2015, according to mobiThinking. Some statistics predict that cell phones will exceed PCs as the most frequently used method for accessing the web by then as well. Some say this milestone already happened as early as 2008.

So it's not surprising that we get a lot of questions about whether or not the websites we build are mobile compatible. The answer is yes. And no.

Surfing the web on a cell phone has changed

In the olden days (read: last year), cell phones were limited to seeing only text on a little screen. So web companies (like us) started talking about how important it was to reinvent the way we made websites in this "new media" i.e. cell technology. Everyone got all freaky about how we should make everything compliant to make sure people could scroll through your whole site with a one-inch green backlit pixilated screen.

Cell phones are limited in their display capacity by a number of factors, including physical size and diverse technology. This diversity in operating systems and platforms makes it difficult to get consistent results for any one website on two or more phones. Some actions common to websites, like rollovers, simply don't exist in the world of cell phones and Smartphones and even iPads.

We can certainly perform some programming magic to create work-around options for these issues. For example, if you have a rollover that links to another page, we can make the link work even when the rollover can't be seen. Before you spend your money on these functional marvels, consider whether or not it is worth the investment for your specific business needs. With the rapid growth of Smartphones that are equipped with browsers, like iPhone and Android, these limitations are starting to disappear, and along with them, the need to program specifically for cell phones.

Websites for mobile browsers, not mobile phones

As you consider the importance of mobile browsing to your business success, answer these questions: Why would people use a cell phone to visit your site? And what do they need from your site in that context? In our experience, mobile surfers are a) stuck out on the road trying to find your phone number or address, or b) bored. Are these good enough reasons to customize all aspects of your site? Maybe they are.

Generally speaking though, making websites "cell phone compliant" isn't a viable strategy anymore. If you are still using an old phone, you aren't surfing the web on your phone. Heck, you probably haven't even charged it in two years. If you want to surf the web on your phone, go buy one with a browser on it (i.e. a Smartphone).

You don't need to pay attention to this shrinking demographic. The tail of "new phone" is wagging the dog. People aren't going to go rebuild the 90 billion websites that already exist into a different format so they can function on old technology when you can buy a new phone which delivers the website as designed. It's wasted money unless you've got a really strong case for a particular return on investment.

So what does all this mean for your website in the mobile world?

Treefrog codes our websites in XHTML, which still gives us the claim to fame that our websites are "compatible with cell phones". This only means to say "more cell phones than what most other websites will work with". It doesn't mean all phones, like those brick phones you could mug someone with from 25 years ago. That's one of the reasons we sell XHTML - it is more "inclusive" of the technopeasants who still have to "flip" something to answer their phone.

We aim to "future proof" your website by not using Flash and other technologies that are losing viability in the rapidly advancing, latest and greatest technology that users have and crave. We have been doing this for some time, working for you to stay ahead of the curve and help your website stay technically feasible for as long as possible in as many environments as possible.

When designing your forward-thinking website, our priority is usually "kewl" and not "save that one luddite who refuses to upgrade his phone".