Fresh and Mobile

According a Nielsen study, yeah, in 2008, The mobile User experience for browsing the web is MISERABLE.

Unsurprisingly the main problems are : a small screen, Awkward input, download delays and mis-designed sites

For the 2 first problems, the iphone and tactile-wide-screen phones such as Blackberry storm and nokia 97 can give a solution.

For the delays, it’s going better on 3G+ and soon 4G. But here the solution in on the hand of the carriers (a kind of wall garden,  change is gonna come, slowly).

And finally the last but not least problem, i.e.  websites, nothing has really changed. The main problem is that sites are not specially designed for a mobile usage. Yes sometimes they got a special css format for a proper view on your device, but it’s so rare when it is functionally designed for mobile devices. Since the Iphone, we saw some changes, now some editor develop  apps, more than a proper mobile-site. but it’s not a really long term solution..can you imagine your bank or  airport designing an iphone, symbian, blackberry and windows mobile app?

via Mobile Usability (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox).

“If I leave my wallet at home, I may not notice it for the whole day,” said Ms. Kim, 21. “But if I lose my cellphone, my life will start stumbling right there in the subway.”

Check this interesting NY times article about the mobile lifestyle in South Korea
So everything is operated via mobile : buying food, train tickets, watch Tv, check weather, play role-playing game, marking their attendence at school, sending money,  etc.

Here are some figures about the mobile market in Japan in 2008

• €10 billions (3,5 for payed content and 6,5 for the m-commerce) – 17% increase since 2008
• 91,5 million people use internet through their mobile (94% through 3G)
• The best payed content come from cd quality ring tones, music singles, then video-games

Basically, nothing new. Just an important growth in the whole sector, and a strong conversion from the classic internet user to mobile internet user