What makes a smart phone so smart?

By now you know that a ‘smart phone’ really is a computer that fits in your hand. It allows you to make phone calls but at this point, phone calls are somewhat of a side show.  Smart phones give us the ability to use applications that take advantage of our physical location and that is a major sea change for computing for years to come.  From ‘augmented reality’ to a digital compass, from restarant locators to favorite bar recipes – we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what these small computers will do to enhance our lives.

Phase 1: Populating the Planet with Smart Phones

As I was planning this post (for about a month now), I was going to predict that 2010 would be the year of the first ‘free’ give-away smartphone.  Meaning – the cost of manufacturing these devices continues to decrease while and their popularity increases.   Their ubiquity is hastened by the give-away.  Before I could post – it has actually already happened.
Verizon Wireless recently expanded its buy-one-get-one offer to include all of its smartphones.  The situation is as follows:  all phones are very quickly, trending towards “smart”.  

What will that mean?  

Assume that eventually everyone will have a “smart” phone – this has wide implications about how people will consume media.  The data shows people with touchscreen mobile phones are more likely to download video, interact with apps and use the mobile web.  This means you can no longer lay back and let your mobile website experience be driven by the more than 30 (and growing) different mobile web browsers.    On the contrary, Smartphones give people much higher expectations of what they should be able to experience from your brand.

Your desktop website was designed for a 10 – 15 inch experience and on a device (a PC or Mac) that can handle complex technologies like Flash or  Java.  Not so on the mobile web. Cell phone websites cannot deal with complex, 'heavy' technologies such as Flash.  Further you need to design the media experience for someone who is in a ‘mobile mode’ – far different that sitting behind a desk and browsing your site in detail.  Even if it loads, people do not like to poke, zoom, pinch their way around your site! You need to make your website mobile friendly.

A growing number of smartphone users really does bode well for the Mobile Web!
More smartphones helps to redefine how we consume media – and it moves people into new habits of access and producing media.    A recent study in the UK found that 65% of smartphone users access the mobile web regularly.  Accessing mobile websites is
fast becoming a part of our daily lives.

Android handsets have been shipping 65,000 smartphones each day and with the recent TapTu report the number of mobile-friendly websites is increasing faster than expected. The growth of the mobile web is happening before our eyes.  Smartphones are driving mobile web traffic and usage. It is time to get in front of the global smartphone "user-sphere" and develop a mobile website that will work especially for the smartphone user where ever they are.