Corporate sites of the FTSE 100 companies are lagging behind when it comes to the mobile web trend. Dean Parker discusses how best to invest to benefit from this new era
The pressure is on. The latest statistics clearly show the speed in uptake of mobile devices being used to access the internet. This increase has not just been for personal use - it’s also a trend within the corporate space as investors, media and employees arm themselves with the latest smart phones and tablets, and increasingly use them as business tools. Forecasters set the moment when desktop internet use is overtaken by mobile at a point between 2012 and 2014.
Research from SAS suggests that a large proportion of major global organisations are currently ignoring this trend, especially when it comes to their corporate websites. While usage analytics show that currently between 3% and 9% of site traffic comes from mobile devices, this figure is expected to rise incredibly quickly over the next few years.
In the FTSE 100, 34% of companies currently either have a corporate site that doesn’t fully function on mobile devices or lack a version that has been specifically built to work on mobiles. In the Dow Jones 30 this figure rises to 53%.
Of those that have focused on the mobile experience of their site(s), most provide a basic mobile site – a cut-down version of their corporate website that uses a simple design and has a fair chance of working across different types of mobile devices. Around a quarter of FTSE 100 companies offer this.
The highest percentage of basic mobile sites is provided by companies in the financial sector (43%) –perhaps reflective of the demand for up-to-date financial news and data on the go.
As you might expect, nearly all technology companies have ensured their sites function well on mobile devices. Conversely, while 70% of FTSE 100 companies within the consumer goods sector fail to provide a satisfactory mobile experience for their corporate site, most provide one for their consumer sites.
And what of the ‘app’? While 16% of the FTSE 100 offer them, a report published by ABI Research last year predicted that demand for ‘app’ stores is expected to peak in 2013 when they will slowly decline as more and more ‘apps’ are preloaded on mobile devices and people migrate from downloading applications to visiting mobile websites. Studies both in the UK and US have found that many ‘apps’ are downloaded, tried once and then discarded.
Although still important for certain targeted functions, it is fast becoming clear that the wise investment in mobile going forward will be in creating great mobile website experiences rather than ‘apps’.
But what are the options when it comes to providing a mobile experience of your site? Does it require substantial investment? Will you have to discard your current site and start again? Should you be building a site from scratch? The answer, thankfully, is invariably no.
There is a great deal of confusion around. Building websites for the desktop environment is relatively straightforward, wheras for mobile you have to consider myriad different device and screen sizes, operating systems, browser types, technical capabilities and interaction models.
As a starting point, all companies should audit their current sites to ensure all existing content is compatible with mobile devices. Thereafter they should find a solution that is appropriate for them in terms of time, audience, budget and resource. Options include an interim solution of a basic mobile site, undertaking a responsive site redesign or developing a more sophisticated mobile framework that takes advantage of all the benefits mobile can.The solution will be differentfor each organisation
The ‘Mobile Web’ is creeping up on us fast and those companies that will benefit the most will do so by taking carefully considered decisions based on long-term goals.
Dean Parker is a client partner at design and communications agency, SAS.
