Online Cell Phone - Web Phone

I decided to write another informative hub about internet technology and I suppose this one is centered a lot around mobile browsers but I chose to entitle it 'Online Cell Phone' because I wanted to cover a broader area.

Below I have included an image of the first Nokia web phone with Webkit-based browser that was released in 2006, it had full HTML and CSS 2.1 functionality and was powerful technology for the time. What sets apart the internet cell phone technology of 2006 and today's models is that most cell phones had tiny screens, limited processors and the network connection was very basic.

If you look at the progress of the mobile browser between now and back then you can see that internet mobile phones have come on leaps and bounds, browsers are now powerful including the Google search option on your home-screen. It is not surprising that Twitter recently revealed almost 40% of its tweets are now made from mobile phones and 14% of these users log in from mobile browsers rather than apps.

The trend in Twitter's users communicating via browsers on their phones internet means it is no coincidence that popular sites such as Google, Facebook and Guardian online news are releasing more sophisticated versions of their apps to give access to their services.

Photo courtesy of wapster

With so many people now surfing from mobile devices such as I-Pads, Kindles and WiFi phones at coffee shops and other WiFi zones, it poses a problem for the web designer who must keep up to date with web phone browser technology.

A mobile optimized site should take layout, content and user interactions into account to suit the mobile context, the most obviously step would be to make the layout smaller to for reduced screen size.

Photo courtesy of samchurchill

Designing for mobile phone internet is not only about screen dimensions, if you think that after you have optimized your layout to fit inside the browser that your images and graphics designed for the desktop are going to be fine, think again because the could become pixelated or hidden behind CSS display:none property.

Photo courtesy of afropicmusing

If you cannot spend time adapting images and illustrations to suit internet mobile phones you could be simply offering a website that appears much smaller but is in fact heavy on the processing power of your viewers processing units, in turn rendering it useless for your business.

Compare the map of Britain on the iPhone directly above with the early Nokia attempt at the beginning of the hub, you will notice the simplicity but overall good resolution and ease of use when using Google apps and this is a good example of how technology has evolved and become equipped to emitted wireless information.

Photo courtesy of wapster