Recognising the power of .dotMobi websites

With the vast number of computer manufacturers in the market (PCs, Apple), browsers (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer) and operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac OS), developing a website which provides as consistent an experience as possible across all these platforms and combinations is a formidable challenge.

Now, think of the mobile space and of the dizzying number of handsets, manufacturers, screen-sizes, interfaces - and you have an idea about how much bigger this problem is for the mobile web.

Technologies that are standard and easily implemented on the web are a pipe-dream for most handsets. Things like AJAX, Flash, Javascript, DHTML and other fancy-schmancy technologies that make the web the engaging, interactive experience it is today are - in most cases - not able to be implemented on mobile phone browsers.

For this reason, some bright sparks decided that there should be a separate domain for websites that have been optimised for viewing on mobile handsets and the top level domain .mobi was born. For example, there's www.highveld.co.za which is for PC access and www.highveld.mobi which is optimised for access from mobile devices.

The web has revolutionised how we interact with and publish information. However, surfing the internet using your mobile phone, while being quite convenient, can be a very frustrating and time-consuming exercise if you're trying to access a non-mobile compliant website. The result is often that people then prefer to wait until they are sitting at a PC than to have to attempt scroll down and across on a tiny cell phone screen. Added to this is the fact that the majority of South Africans do not have access to a PC, but more likely own a cell phone and therefore have a much cheaper means of accessing the internet.

Liron Segev of Swift Telecoms says: "The problem that exists is that websites have been created to work with powerful PCs, with a 17" screen, a mouse and a keyboard, which means that traditional websites do not function or display correctly on mobile phones. Hence the creation of .dotMobi websites, where a dedicated Mobi site is created to deliver your information to a mobile phone anytime, anywhere there is cell phone coverage, without the current frustrations of non-mobile compliant websites."

Segev says that the .dotMobi phenomenon has already been widely accepted in the international arena. However, the need is only now being recognised, with larger companies slowly starting to establish a mobile presence for South African internet users. Currently, a third of the world's population accesses the internet through a mobile device. By 2010, it is predicted that this figure will increase to half of the world's population.

"This number is twice the size of internet-connected personal computers. Historically, technology has been slow in filtering down to South Africa. However, with mobile, we are leading the way. Corporates have embraced mobile technology like SMS, and Mobi sites are the next revolution set to change the way we do business and how we live our lives."

According to Segev, mobile development isn't simply website development made smaller. "A different set of skills is required to take into consideration phone browsers as well as the different makes and models of mobile phones. This makes.dotMobi sites a more involved programming process.

"Also, a company's requirements need to be taken into consideration when developing a .dotMobi site. We need to be smart when working with mobile applications so we tend to encourage corporates to only feature the necessary content, thereby preventing the user from having to sift through unnecessary information and creating a positive interaction with the site for the user, resulting in immediate gratification."

Marketingweb: Is your company planning on developing a new .dotmobi website? As a marketer, what kind of potential do you see with a .dotmobi website used as the focal point of a campaign? What has your experience been with.dotmobi websites thus far? We'd love to hear from you.