Desktop to lose its web access monopoly
People have talked for years about how everyones going t be accessing the internet via their mobile phones, or through some screen on the door of their fridge, or some such other ‘alternative device’. But it’s never happened, almost all internet traffic is still done through a desktop/laptop PC/Mac.
Most mobile phones are useless when it comes to the web, they can’t browse normal web sites generally, the number of sites with mobile specific content is small, people find them annoying to use it seems. It’s really never taken off in the way people expected. Worryingly, I don’t think a lot of people realise why it never really took off.
Things are a changin’
Just over a year ago, Opera Mini was released. THis was a complete watershed in mobile web browsing. It works, it opens many existing sites (anything that’s basically just HTML should be fine, you’re likely to get issues where there’s lots of JS or bits of FLASH though), people can use it, it doesn’t result in as big phone bills as you might get (it uses a proxy which sends smaller chunks of data, and resizes and compresses images to suit the phone screen) otherwise.
It’s not perfect, but compared to what we had before, it’s amazing. It’s basically Opera, on a smaller screen, so it supports the same kinds of standards that Opera supports. No requirements for web specific content, or special coding practices. If you test it, you’ll likely find your web site works in Opera Mini.
There are some design issues it can struggle with, say if you have a timetable on a page, because of the sheer narrowness of the screen, it will probably be difficult to read. But hey, at least you can get to the site, so we’re a lot further on than we were before. It’s becoming more about making tweaks to a sites design, rather than either ignoring mobile phones, or producing a seperate site to support them.
I believe Apple’s iPhone will provide similar levels of support, if implimented slightly differently. Using Safari, obviously, but rather than rerendering a page to suit a mobile phone, you’ll just be able to scroll more around the site as it would look on a desktop, possibly with some kind of zoom type functionality.
Other companies are bound to go along similar lines. They simply cannot compete with browsers that open up web usage on mobile phones like Opera are doing, and like Apple are likely to do.
Other devices
And it’s not just mobile phones that are finding their way round the web. Consoles aren’t new to Internet access, but previously it’s been pretty much limited to online gaming, the Xbox and Xbox360 are prime examples here. Not really web access is it?
But we’ve got the Nintendo Wii, with it’s own version of Opera in open testing at the moment. Like with the mobile phones, Opera is enabling these Wii users to browse most of the web. They can even play Flash files (think YouTube browsing from your sofa) and make use of the Wiimote. WebTV was never upto much, but people who’ve used it are impressed with the Wii web browsing experience. Again, because the browser is so good with it’s support of current web sites, you’re going to be tweaking sites to work on the Wii, not completely redesigning them.
When it’s fully released later this year, and as the Wii sells more and more, I’m expecting web browsing from this novel console to increase.
With more maturity than the Wii, the Nintendo DS already has a fully released version of Opera that can be bought. Wireless internet access on your DS, again full access to many web sites, rerendered to work on the DS screens. One screens shows you a shrunk down view of the whole page, the other a close up of a specific part of it. Real, effective web browsing.
It won’t surprise me if, in response to what Nintendo are doing, Microsoft and Sony sort out their own methods for browsing the web from their respective consoles. You can already use the PSP online, but it seems to use a weird version of the Gecko engine that powers Firefox, and so has it’s own quirks and issues. Different to the Opera browser on the Wii and DS which utilises the full power of the Opera browser, and adjusts it for different screens.
So, Opera Mini has been out for a bit over a year near, managing over 1 billion pages views by it’s first birthday, and people who know nothing about different browsers on the desktop are finding that Opera works on their phone. The Nintendo Wii hasn’t had it’s browser fully launched yet, when that happens, I’m expecting it’s usage to rise, and the DS is likely to be a bit of a slow burner, as it’s a bit more niche.
Still, who’s going to come out and compete with what Opera Mini and Opera on the Wii provide? and when will they do it?
I see us at a pivotal point in the way we access web pages. It may still be a few more years before it really picks up, but it’s starting NOW. If you’re building a new site, what browsers are you considering? A bunch of the standard ones? IE/Firefox/Safari, maybe Opera? Aiming at a primary screen resolution of 1024×768? Mainly looking at Windows and OSX as the platforms?
Depending on your time scales, you could be limiting yourself, mobile phones and consoles (and I think the console thing will likely be the bigger driver) are getting improved web access. They will need some considerations, most people ignore Opera when browser testing, the screen resolutions of TV’s become an issue (it’ll be interesting to see how HD affects things). Some sites (various sites of ‘adult appeal’ unsurprisingly) have been setting up Wii optimised layouts, but how do you reckon yours will look?
It’s for the above reasons that I think the whole .mobi TLD’s are a waste of time. Had they done it 5 or 10 years ago, it may have been useful. But they’ve instead done it at the point when cross platform web access is finally becoming useable. It will become popular, the price point and popularity of the Wii could give it the kick it needs, but I see it as just a matter of time.