On the Modeco forum they give a nice tutorial on tuning-up or rather speeding up your Windows mobile browsing experience. Well worth giving it a try for your Pocket PC or Smartphone if you find the performance not quite up to scratch: Performance problems on your Mobile Internet connection? Try this! >>
Archive for August, 2006
Article has moved to the Search and Go articles base here: Mobile Web Explained
Over 36.4 million people have accessed the mobile web in June 2006 according to Telephia the leading provider of performance measurement information to the mobile industry.
The latest information for mobile use shows that weather and email sites are the most visited mobile web categories with sports and city guides following closely.
According to Telephia, Yahoo! Mail was the most visited site by mobile consumers in June. More than 5.8 million mobile consumers accessed The Weather Channel through their mobile phones, while visitors to ESPN totalled more than 5.3 million. Rounding out the top five, Google Search and MSN Hotmail secured 4.3 and 3.4 million mobile visitors, respectively.
Mobile web use according to who you read is up. Others are more cautious and reporting varying figures with some reports that it is down or making no difference.
According to Telephia, 81 percent of Internet consumers now have phones with browsers that support
xHTML-MP, which allows for an enhanced Internet browsing experience that is closer to what consumers are familiar with on their computers. Telephia also announced that Openwave, Motorola and Nokia browsers have the highest adoption rates among wireless Internet users, with more than one fourth of mobile Web users accessing the Internet via an Openwave browser.
It was interesting to note that the Opera Mobile Browser did not make it to Telephia’s list of the top nine browsers. Opera is widely regarded as the most important mobile web browser with its many advanced features that allow for ease of use while ’surfing the mobile web.’
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Related Reading:
Telephia - Performance Measurement for the Mobile Industry
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) anounced on Thursday 10/08/2006 the release of SVG Tiny 1.2 as a W3C Candidate Recommendation; 2D Vector Graphics Ready to Implement on All Types of Devices.
The W3C has published a draft of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Specification, a graphics standard suitable for both mobile and desktop devices. SVG, enables the creation of interactive two-dimensional vector graphics and animations. The latest version of the standard, SVG 1.2 or SVG Tiny, is small enough for mobile devices.
Scalable Vector Graphics already benefits from the wide adoption in mobile devices, commercial mobile services, and desktop browsers such as Opera and Firefox, which now ship with native support for SVG. In 2003, responding to industry demand and requests from the SVG developer community, the Scalable Vector Graphics Working Group introduced SVG Tiny, designed for mobile devices. SVG Tiny 1.1 provides an open standard solution for delivering graphical content that works equally well on handsets and desktops.
Industry Poised to Adopt New Standard
Industry leaders and other standards organizations have looked to W3C to expand upon the SVG Tiny profile and have lent their support for the format, including commitments to incorporate SVG Tiny 1.2 into their own requirements. These commitments and other information about support for SVG can be found on the SVG testimonials page.
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Related Reading:
SVG Tiny 1.2 Is a Candidate Recommendation - W3C
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2 Specification - W3C
Newsfactor Magazine reported in their Wireless Tech section that the public are shunning the mobile web.
Nearly three-quarters of people are avoiding the mobile Internet because of high costs and poor experiences of the technology, according to research published today. The findings highlight the need for firms to develop mobile-compatible content, said experts.
In a survey conducted by web hosting company Hostway announced that a third of the respondents were frustrated by slow-loading mobile web pages.
The W3C Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) has published guidelines that call for best practice when developing sites for the mobile web. The practices are designed to maximize the user experience when surfing on a mobile device.
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Related Reading
Public Is Shunning the Mobile Web - Newsfactor
USA Today reported that readers and viewers are ‘fleeing newspapers and zapping past TV commercials’ as a result advertisers are now targeting the mobile web market and mobile devices, an area consumers can’t seem to escape.
Mobile phones and wireless devices have quietly become the newest, hottest frontier for big brands from Pepsi to Nike, especially those itching to reach the coveted 18- to 34-year-old set.
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Related Reading:
Ad campaigns for your tiny cellphone screen get bigger - USA Today
Opera Software the makers of the ‘World’s Fastest Web Browser has announced that Opera Mini mobile web users have surfed one billion Web pages since the browser’s official launch seven months ago. The most popular sites are Google search, community and dating sites, e-mail and domains for more grown-up entertainment. The mini browser has been embraced by more than five million active users worldwide, and is increasingly pre-installed on mobile phones from leading operators and mobile phone manufacturers across the globe.
“Today is not just a great day for Opera; it’s a pivotal day for the mobile entertainment industry and operators worldwide,” says Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “Opera Mini’s success shows that mobile data services have a massive potential as long as the quality of the service matches and exceeds people’s expectations. Reaching one billion page views in just seven months is a true milestone, proving that people are so satisfied with the performance and usability of Opera Mini that they use the browser actively and on a regular basis.”
Leading mobile network operators and handset manufacturers are starting to realize the potential of Opera Mini. T-Mobile is pre-installing Opera Mini on selected handsets as part of its Web’n'Walk offering in Europe, and several other leading mobile players are signing up to deliver the Opera Mini Web experience to mobile phone users around the world. A long list of mobile content providers are promoting customized versions of Opera Mini to customers in order to increase usage and customer loyalty. The free Opera Mini Browser has become one of the world’s most popular mobile Java applications in just seven months.
The Engineer Online reported that scientist at the University of Manchester have been developing a project which will combine web accessibility with mobile phone technologies.
The chief aim of the project is to develop new software that will make the mobile web simple to sue as the World Wide Web.
The Mobile Web accessibility project is being lead by Dr. Simon Harper from the University’s School of Computer Science
Dr Harper said: ‘Mobile web users are handicapped not by physiology but technology. Not only is the screen on the majority of phones very small, limiting the user’s vision, but the information displayed is difficult to navigate and read.
The team will have many challenges to overcome with this project, small screen devices are a lot more difficult than larger desktop screens.
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Related Reading:
Next generation mobile web - The Engineer Online
T-Mobile have anounced that are offering unlimited Mobile Web access with their Web ‘n’ Walk plan. In order to have this service you have to sign up to either Flext + web ‘n’ walk, Relax + web ‘n’ walk or U-Fix web ‘n’ walk and use one of their compatible phones. The cost of the Web ‘n’ Walk service is a maximum of £1.00 per day.
Not a bad idea from T-Mobile except for the part where they tie you into one of their phones and you have to sign up using one of their web service features.
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Reference:
Web ‘n’ Walk - T-Mobile
Google Inc. has released a new search service that only links to pages that have been formatted for display in handheld mobile devices.’
PC Welt reported that:
Google added a new “Mobile Web” option to the pages. When this button is selected, users will only receive links to pages that have been formatted for the smaller displays of mobile devices, according to Google. Source
Google’s mobile search option firmly gives users the freedom to make the decision whether they want to have Mobile Web ready pages displayed on their screens or regular webpage’s that have not been formatted for the Mobile Web.
This should be an incentive for site owners to start building or implementing the fixes to get their websites mobile ready.
