With the recent unveiling of the new iPhone, the world has once more focused all eyes and ears on this technological marvel, almost shunning any other phone in existence. Brands such as the HTC and Blackberry, which by the way are outselling the iPhone in North America, and are very quickly and efficiently releasing new handsets, upgrades and packages, albeit without the fanfare surrounding them, and are yet providing the hardware, software and usability to easily match the iPhone.
We can’t deny the iPhone has some features that make even the most PC savvy techies step back and check their wallet, but more often than not companies take this at face value and simply develop everything they do for the iPhone. Sadly, among the rivalry that ensues between phone manufacturers, each one believes its own internet-browsing software is the pinnacle of engineering. This has cumulated in the creation of a countless set of rules determining what a website needs to be developed for.
Each set of rules are different, achieve different things and take different amounts of time to make happen, so to speak. However, it shouldn’t be a gift given to one single phone make, or model, and should in fact encompass the most popular phones. Developing for the major mobile web software packages such as Opera, Safari and Android would cover a very large area of this growing and expanding market; with an estimated 25% using Opera, 17% using Safari and 8% using Android, you can be happy with the knowledge that the vast majority of your users can use your website as you want them to use it.
Exceptions are everywhere, and the phones that throw this totally out of kilter are the manufacturers of Blackberry and Nokia; heard of them? They have generally been leading the business sector for a long time now. Arguably, the Blackberry is leading this wave and even finding its way into trendy, fashion minded youngsters who believe it will make them CEO of The Body Shop, or Marketing Director for Ferrari. One must remember that with the BlackBerry and Nokia come added rules, but with fewer functions available to make things look and feel as you, the brand, would like, makes them the some of the most popular phones within a very popular target audience – a target audience which is by far the hardest to cater for.
The first thing any company has to do is decide who they want to see their website, and what they like to see on it. If that person is a businessman on the way to your office for a critical new business meeting, what would they like to see? If this is a teenager searching the name of the company on the back of their latest football world cup playing cards, what would they want to see from your company, how can your company best cater for that person, and how can you not include the phone of their choice?