The share of web traffic from mobile devices increased by 110 percent in North America over the past year and 148 percent globally, according to a new study by Quantcast as reported by MediaPost News.

fig3quantcast

[…] While still only a small fraction of overall Web traffic, the Internet analytics and advertising firm says accelerating development in devices, operating systems and browsers is driving rapid growth.

While Apple easily commands the largest share of mobile page views at about 60%, Quantcast points out that its dominance is being eroded by emerging competitors in the smartphone market. Most notable is the Motorola Droid, which captured almost 4% share in its first full month, overtaking the Palm Pre. The Droid has also helped Google’s Android operating system surpass the BlackBerry OS with a 12% share of North American mobile Web traffic.

If you need any further prompting to make sure your web presence is optimized for visits by people using mobile devices to connect to the net, and not purely on those nice big wide screens on desktop and laptop computers, take note of this.

Note, too, that if you’re a WordPress user – whether for a blog or a ‘normal’ website – it’s easy to have a mobile version of your site almost in an instant and with no major effort on your part via one of the many choices of plugins available that automatically detect the device you’re using when you visit a website using such a plugin, and serve up content formatted for the visitor’s mobile device.

That’s what I have on this site, using WordPress Mobile Edition by developer Alex King.

Do it today!

Quantcast’s report has some very interesting information and commentary on the market share by mobile device. Here’s the global picture:

fig5quantcast

Just look at Apple’s share for the iPhone! Note, too, how it has plateaued. Maybe that’s in some of their thinking behind their rumoured tablet device.

And that market share surely must be among the nuts Google hopes to crack with their just-announced Nexus One mobile device.

Details: 2009 Mobile Web Trends Report (PDF download)

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38 responses to “More evidence on why you need to make your website work for mobile devices”

  1. Richard Aucock avatar

    Totally agree, Neville – these stats really do underline it. And I also can’t say eagerly enough how easy it is to optimise, if you’re a WordPress user. I installed the plugin and was away ‘n running in minutes.

    Yet more reason why I love WordPress. Gave me an extra impetus to keep on adding posts too, to ensure the blog is as current as it can be. It’s been an interesting, unexpected and welcome side-effect!

    http://www.richardaucock.com/ido-iphone-at-last/

    1. neville avatar

      Glad you made the jump, Richard! You have the same situation as Scott does (comment below) – when I visit your site in the browser on my Nokia N95 8GB, I see the same site I see when I visit on my desktop PC, not a site optimized for mobile. But I see it beautifully on my iPhone.

      The plugin you use only works for iPhone. Something to bear in mind if you want to attract non-iPhone users :)

      1. Richard Aucock avatar

        Thanks Neville – I’ll take a look! I need to be a harder-core geek, I think, and get more smartphones. As if I need an excuse!! ;-)

  2. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Neville Hobson, alisha. alisha said: RT @jangles More evidence on why you need to make your website work for mobile devices http://bit.ly/63MJev […]

  3. alishabenson (Alisha Benson) avatar

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    RT @jangles More evidence on why you need to make your website work for mobile devices [link to post]

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  4. jangles (Neville Hobson) avatar

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  5. jangles (Neville Hobson) avatar

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  8. Scott avatar

    While WordPress Mobile Edition is really good I think WPTouch is the best option for quickly and easily making a WordPress driven site into a stunning mobile site. I use it on all of my websites

    http://www.bravenewcode.com/wptouch/

    1. neville avatar

      I’ve heard good things about WPTouch. But, it only does iPhone, right? For instance, I see your blog beautifully formatted when I visit on my iPhone 3G.

      An entirely different situation when I go to your blog on my Nokia N95 8GB – I get the same site as if I’m visiting on my desktop computer.

      One reason I stay with Alex King’s plugin – works on any mobile device, certainly a Nokia as well as iPhone.

      1. Scott avatar

        I know it is designed specifically for the iPhone but it also works perfect on the Android platform. It really does depend on the website and its readers.. Most of my mobile readers are iPhone readers.

        1. neville avatar

          Maybe all we need to be concerned about now are iPhone and Android :)

          1. Scott avatar

            I’m seeing a drop in BB on all sites I manage. Do you use the iPhone more than the Nokia?

  9. RT @JennyDeVaughn: More evidence on why you need to make your website work for mobile devices http://bit.ly/5sVBoH

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  11. RT @jangles More evidence on why you need to make your website work for mobile devices http://bit.ly/63MJev

  12. Bryan Person avatar

    I finally got in the game earlier this week, Neville. I’m a WordPress blogger, too, and went with the MobilePress plugin. A snap to install, and now my site renders quickly and beautifully for mobile phones!

    1. neville avatar

      That plugin looks good, Bryan – I visited your site on my iPhone and the Nokia 95 8GB. In both cases, site rendered perfectly for the mobile device. Nice!

      1. Bryan Person avatar

        Was wondering how it would look on mobile phones other than the iPhone. Good to know it renders well on the Nokia 95 8GB!

  13. neville avatar

    Scott, replying to your last question a bit out of sequence but for some reason, nested replies to your original comment don’t go beyond 5 (yet blog setting is 10). Maybe it’s the theme.

    Anyway, to your question re my Nokia phone. I don’t use it for web at all. It’s just not a pleasure compared to the iPhone plus trying to figure out Vodafone’s data pricing is always beyond me (O2’s for iPhone, by comparison, is simplicity itself). I may or may not be typical of some other user behaviour, but I use the Nokia for phone and photos and the iPhone for apps and web.

    Looks like the Nexus One combines the best of these separate devices. The killer device perhaps?

    1. Scott avatar

      That is how it appears. I have the Moto Droid and will be looking into the Nexus when available for Verizon, however I do like having a real keyboard option

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  16. allanalher (Allan Alher) avatar

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  17. Don_Crowther (DonCrowther) avatar

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  20. CellPhoneHero (Bugsy Bowe) avatar

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  21. impactmax (impactmax) avatar

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