There are many solutions for launching mobile portals for website content. It must be stated that most fall very short of their goal for one reason or another. Let’s discuss the many aspects of where some services succeed and fail.
Mobile Installation-based Platforms
Mobile Installation-based Platforms tend to fail miserably when the platform is launched by companies that have little reputation outside of being a new start up or service. There are quite a few available platforms that have been around for quite some time, but will never take off or gain mass acceptance due to the brand obscurity and/or all user resistance to installing random software on their devices just to access the 5-10 sites that were sold a platform solution that failed to take off.
Pitfalls…
SurfKitchen.com
There are, however, a few mobile solutions that provide the reputation and advanced functionality to represent a viable option for launching mobile content across a large section of handheld device. These platforms tend to be open-source based communities that empower developers with API-based interfaces and contain a much large cross section to content services.
Success!!!
Yahoo! Go (Mobile)
Mobile Browser Services
Let’s face it - almost every site on the internet was not built to be squeezed onto a 310 pixel screen. There are many solutions that will take your content and build a site that is sized for the mobile screen, but many of the automated tools are horrible for producing a site that displays information in a way any brand would want across all devices. There are quite a few limitations on the image and Flash capabilities of most mobile devices and to simply reformat the content in a 310 pixel width is less than appealing. Make sure to read the agreement before registering your site for a .mobi or portal type service as most have free access for the first year with huge fees later or charge outrageous prices for the .mobi domain registration.
Pitfalls…
InstantMobilizer
Most important Mobile consideration ~ there is no reason to buy the .mobi extension of a current domain name. Your users would much rather be redirected to a mobile service directly from the main domain than have to remember a new domain.
Why make your user remember to put in domain.mobi rather than domain.com?
The best solution is to find a solution that will take a pure content feed via RSS or XML and produce a branded mobile site based on the feed. For sites that have very complex content, it may be best to find a solution with content management capabilities to format and upload the content in the correct formats to maximize device access/compatibility.
Conclusion
With all the mobile devices and platforms currently available on the market, it is best to look for services that are not limited to strictly mobile content and provide multiple content formats/services for addressing new and current devices. The ability to reach other emerging avenues, such as widgets and TV’s, will be the true test of solutions that reach user outside the computer browser. Working with a single solution to reach a whole host of user interfaces will be the best solution. Mobile content has been driven by the demand for content access outside the browser and to focus strictly on the launch of mobile services negates a large cross section of existing user interaction points and the ability to quick expand to any new technologies.
If you need more information on launching a mobile site from your existing domain, contact Widget Realm and a specialist will help guide you through the simple process. Or, use our online service to build your own redirect file in minutes.
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