Mobile Web News & Articles

H3 Solutions, creator of Mobile Entrée (news, site), a mobile application framework for SharePoint, has announced some new capabilities which include support for the upcoming SharePoint 2010 and its new Business Connectivity Services.

One day the mobile interface will influence everything from the way we collaborate, communicate and design. According to Gartner’s five social software predictions for 2010 and beyond, the mobile web will change the way we think about user engagement, work spaces and the PC-based web.

This week, web publishing focuses on the ways digital media is making headlines. From the mobile web to new careers, digital media is at the forefront of the media business model.

You're behind the curve if you haven't been working on a mobile strategy. Consider this: the mobile sector is a US$ 850 billion global market and will comprise 62% of the total telecom market in 2010 (IDC study, Worldwide Mobile Trends: Steady Subscriber Growth, the Proliferation of Applications, and the Mobile Internet ). Or this: more than one half of internet users worldwide used a mobile device for part of their shopping activities in December 2009 (Mobile Shopping Takes Hold Worldwide - eMarketer).

But before you circle the strategy and tech wagons, step back and think about how you really need to approach this channel. Need help? Read on.

TechRadar recently delivered what they and top experts consider to be key trends for the next 12 months in web design. At the core, is an increased focus on usability. Smashing Magazine sought to promote better user experiences with storytelling, encouraging designers to capitalize on users' emotions. The bottom line: by focusing on usability, a better website can be built.

Who says you need a mobile app in the app store to make it big? A new survey by Bango reveals that developers are more focused on maximizing distribution and revenues than making it into the App Store top 10.

Social media moves so fast, it's hard to keep up. Here are the week's top stories in scan-friendly format:

• Facebook Name Largest Mobile Social Network, With Twitter On Its Heels
• Very Few Use Their Mobile To Browse the Internet
• Social Networking Use Up 82%
• The Typical Twitter User Isn't Very Active

The Guardian News & Media (via Guardian.co.uk) are broadcasting their recent good fortune. It turns out that it has sold 68,979 copies of its premium iPhone app, which launched in December. Does the future of web publishing belong to iPhone apps?

Web analytics is a hot discussion topic these days -- you can't move forward and embrace your customers if you can't measure the choices they are making. One area of this industry that is taking on a major role is the mobile web. And Semphonic, an independent web analytics consultancy firm, is demonstrating just how important is has become.

The company has hired former Nokia Head of Analytics, Greg Dowling, to be their new Vice President. Dowling, a fifteen year industry veteran, has extensive experience in mobile measurements and enterprise analytics. Not only has he worked for Nokia, he was also Vice President of Strategy & Analysis for Digitas and worked as a senior analyst with JupiterResearch.

Dowling will head up Semphonic's office in New York and take the lead with their mobile strategy and measurement practice. Gary Angel, Semphonic's President had this to say about Dowling joining the company:

Semphonic is committed to being the leader in mobile measurement consulting. Many of our clients are still struggling with what to do about mobile and Greg’s deep knowledge in this area will create a significant advantage for all Semphonic clients.

The explosive growth of mobile device usage has definitely lead to a strong need for organizations to both develop their mobile strategy (because they need one) and measurement tactics. It's not as simple as using the tools and strategies that apply to the web itself, there's a little more to it.

How much more? Stay tuned here as we dig deeper into this topic.

Mobile seems to be where the future is and the W3C (news, site) is guiding us there with its latest set of guidelines and best practices.

Do you want reach a wider audience in a search engine friendly capacity or increase revenue through paid subscriptions and advertising? Do you want to improve editorial efficiency with easy access to archives? If so, take a look at Pressmart’s new pay-as-you-go, hosted Web CMS product ePortal.

Box.net (news, site)  has just gone mobile with the launch of a new API that will allow iPhone developers to integrate with its content management and collaboration platform.

And while OpenBox Mobile is only available forthe iPhone, the company says that it is looking at extending support to Palm webOS, Android and Blackberry.

With OpenBox Mobile, Box.net has opened up a whole new level of collaboration for iPhone users offering the ability to access all their files, share those files with anyone they chose and store as much content as they wish without breaching their iPhone limits.

It is now official. Microsoft and Nokia have formally announced a new, groundbreaking partnership that will see the creation of a set of productivity solutions designed specifically for a mobile workforce.

The partnership involves the design, development and marketing of a set of productivity, collaboration and communication solutions for Nokia smartphones, starting with the Nokia Eseries.

What are some of the solutions that will be included in this new mobile partnership?

• Create, edit, view and share Office documents including mobile-optimized versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote
• Access to SharePoint based Intranets and Extranets
• IM, presence awareness, conferencing and collaboration using Microsoft Communicator Mobile
• Device Management with Microsoft Systems Center

Nokia is the largest smartphone provider with over 200 million customers worldwide, so it does make sense that Microsoft would choose to partner with them to push their mobile solutions to the world.

What is good to know is that there will be dedicated mobile teams within each company working on these mobile solutions and that they are not just an extension of existing product teams. We would expect this means a true effort to deliver truly mobile software.

Mobile solutions have a specific user experience that needs to be considered. Many vendors are already developing mobile-optimized versions of their applications, including business apps for the iPhone.

With explosive growth of the mobile workforce, Microsoft may be primed to take the lead thanks to their partnership. Of course it won't hurt Nokia either.

It's a mobile epidemic! And trust us, "epidemic" is in no way too strong a word. Opera's mobile browser, Opera Mini, proves it with recent numbers: for the first time ever, users viewed more than 10 billion pages in one month according to the State of the Mobile Web report by Opera.

Opera (news, site) got on the mobile hype way back in 1998 when they developed their first mobile browser. Since then (especially in recent times), they've done a pretty good job at staying in the spotlight. The mobile browser has seen a growth in user base of over 4.2% globally since May 2009, and over 143% over the past year. Their page views have increased by over 8 percent over the figures for the month of May and for the first time, breached the 10 billion mark in June.

Opera's numbers reflect a quickly growing trend: “More than 10 billion page views in one month underscore that the Web is already the platform of choice for mobile devices," explained Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. "Web standards provide a more efficient way to create flawless sites across all devices."

If you're ready to join the movement, it looks like Opera's a good place to start. The self-proclaimed "most popular mobile Web browser" is currently available as version 4.2 and features personalized skins, better video support and synced notes. Check it out here.

It's no secret that regulatory policies often dictate the way that information can be accessed, shared or otherwise managed. Internationally-based companies face challenges posed by privacy laws, like the U.S. Patriot Act and the EU Data Protection Directive, which prohibits the transportation of electronically stored data from the U.S and Europe.

Kiersted Systems has addressed this issue by launching a mobile service for processing electronic discovery data. Prompted by such challenges, Kiersted's mobile processing capability allows companies to perform eDiscovery wherever clients may be: down the street, across the country or around the globe.