User demographics
Some of the research gives conflicting stats but according to the CCi Digital Futures Report - The internet in Australia approx 4.2 million Australians (out of the 21 million population) could access the internet through handheld devices. The number who actually do on a daily basis though could be lower.
The people using mobile internet are younger - A quarter of the mobile net audience is aged 15-24, compared to 16% for the PC [Nielsen Online] . These users will likely be using the internet on their phones as they are on the move so maybe time-poor and be very focused on a particular goal, they're not interested in browsing around so much. They have different motivations to users on their PC internet, so mobile site (msite) design shouldn't be treated as a 'mini-web'.
Data plan costs
Data plans are more expensive than in UK or US but tariffs are coming down. You can easily get 1Gb for ~$30/month
now, although this still isn't as good as the UK t-mobile 'web and walk' all you can eat for 7.50 GBP! Until Aus gets unlimited plans msites will still need to consider download costs in the design. I think this is really important when it comes to advertising. Who wants to waste their data plan downloading a big ad image?!
Handsets
Handsets are becoming easier to use. AS well as the i-phone there are many smartphones and other web enabled phones available in Australia which can give a good user experience. When designing an msite there is a business decisions that needs to be made around which types of handsets you want to support.
It is possible to design sites which will 'fit' to the majority of handsets, and implement handset detection functionality on entering the site, but is the cost of this really justified? Will those with lower spec phones really be likely to use the msite or have a data plan anyway? Designing for i-phone definetly has marketing advantages because then you can get into providing iphone applications too and be listed on the iphone App Store.
Relevant site content
Customer data is not given out so freely by telcos. The MSISDN is the telephone number linked to a sim card in a mobile phone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSISDN if you can get hold of this number you can identify who owns the phone and personalise the msite accordingly. In some countries (US and UK I think) you can get this number but in Aus the telcos won't due to privacy laws, although this may change in the future. You can however work out where is user is based on the location of the tower their mobile is using. This can be great for localising a site, making it
quicker to use and more relevant.
Marketing
Premium sms channels are being used in Australia by some companies. For example the user can send a premium cost sms to recieve access to a certain site to enter a compeition or get information. The company then gets a share of the cost of the message with the telco provider. Proximity marketing can be used to promote sites by sending a message to bluetooth enabled phones which pass by. There are some legal issues around 'opt ins'.
Walled gardens
In Australia a lot of the telcos operate walled gardens where the user doesn't always have to use their data plan if they remain on sites within the 'garden'. In certain cases telcos may even pay the site for their content being available 'on-deck'within their walled garden.
Partnering with a telco in this way could initially help to raise the profile of the new msite, which is important as users do not necessarily access msites through search engines at the same level as they do on the internet.
Business benefits of launching a mobile site?
For certain companies having a mobile version of their website can give big advantages:
- they have access to their customers while they are on the move, so increasing conversion opportunities (need to be careful that this isn't cannibalising traditional web traffic though)
- they can earn additional revenue through premium sms charges
- they can put ads on their mobile site (although this should be done with caution to avoid longer load times)
- it is a good story for their brand if the site is done well and takes off
Aus mobile sites
The autralian based msites working well at the moment are either related to be on the move or very targeted towards a specific goal:
- find information based on location e.g. city search, weather , transport
- catching up with news e.g. Sydney Morning Herald ,
- searching for jobs, cars, or homes e.g. drive
- there are some niche ecommerce sites starting to appear too e.g. Ready flower (could be useful for the forgetful on Feb 14th!)
So we need msites to...
- Have a purpose which is useful to be able to access on the move / away from PC
- Be relevant to user and quick to use through Personalisation, Customisation, Localisation
- Be simple to navigate and have fast loading pages using the targeted handsets / platforms
- Provide monetization opportunties for the site through advertsing or marketing
