I’m amused, I’ve been evaluating a PDA/iPod replacement and have been impressed with the ‘full screen’ presentation ability of the Safari web browser on the iPhone/ iPod Touch devices. For many years many popular websites have produced reduced displays that are more or less tailored to PDA’s and cellphones which have small screens. This is great for PDA’s and mobile phone users, but requires an extra effort on the part of the website builder, an effort that many sites choose to forgo.
So it is with much amusement that during this research I find that there are great efforts being rendered to redirect mobile Safari browsers to a reduced screen real-estate copy of any given website an iPhone friendly page if you will. This is, in a some measure, a vindication of the previous efforts of website creators to provide Palm PDA’s, WinCE, Symbian browsers with a Practical web interface to their sites.
This, more or less, mitigates the one great Mobile Safari advantage on the iPod Touch/ iPhone. You don’t need Zoom and shrink on a smaller screen. You don’t need to download, and render full sized graphics. You don’t need 3G bandwidth. And in one step, renders the browsers, on all the other mobile Phones and PDA’s, equal.
I’d say that the web developers decision has more to do with the amount of browsing iPhone/iPod touch users do as opposed to the amount of browsing on all other mobile devices; if the previous efforts had been successful, the iPhone/iPod touch would not have had the impact they have on mobile browsing. You develop your websites for those that are going to be visiting; just like virus writers develop viruses for the dominant os to get as much exposure as they can get.
build for the masses, that’s the way it works.
I’d say that the web developers decision has more to do with the amount of browsing iPhone/iPod touch users do as opposed to the amount of browsing on all other mobile devices; if the previous efforts had been successful, the iPhone/iPod touch would not have had the impact they have on mobile browsing. You develop your websites for those that are going to be visiting; just like virus writers develop viruses for the dominant os to get as much exposure as they can get.
build for the masses, that’s the way it works.
Is this really iPod popularity or a better data rate plan included with the iPhone subscriptions? Mobil phone operators are charging a kings crown in bandwidth, and the WAP/GPRS thing used in most systems was at best, unusable.
Is this really iPod popularity or a better data rate plan included with the iPhone subscriptions? Mobil phone operators are charging a kings crown in bandwidth, and the WAP/GPRS thing used in most systems was at best, unusable.
I think that browsing on the iPhone is still a different experience because the ‘glue’ between these optimised destinations is still going to be full format web pages and still ten times better on the iPhone.,
YMMV
I think that browsing on the iPhone is still a different experience because the ‘glue’ between these optimised destinations is still going to be full format web pages and still ten times better on the iPhone.,
YMMV