Business Insider ran an interesting article this week, in which it asked a number of technology experts and pundits for their answers to the simple question: “What’s the future of mobile?”
All of the answers were fascinating, but we were struck by the one given by Peter Rojas, founder of tech blogs Gizmodo, Engadget and GDGT.
His answer was simple: The future of mobile is the future of everything.
“The majority of internet usage will be via a mobile device, and for most people the mobile web will be their primary – if not their only – way of experiencing the internet.”
If Rojas prediction turns out right (and, just to be clear: we believe it will), there will be profound consequences for web developers and their customers.
Most people (ourselves included) still tend to have a fixed view of what a “website” is. It’s a collection of pages, an online database, that people visit using a computer of some sort. The trouble is, the shape, size and form of those computers is changing, incredibly quickly.
Smartphones are becoming excellent web browsing machines. Tablet computers are even better, because they are large enough to display content in a more readable, usable way. And people love using them. The iPad has been a massive success, and that’s just the start. Tablets are still young, and the technology has a long way to go before it matures.
Traditionally, mobile websites have been an optional extra, something added on to larger web development projects.
But that tradition has to change. More and more people are going to be using mobile devices more often. They’re going to expect the web to work for them there, just as it does on desktop computers. Ignoring mobile users will soon be bad for business.
