By 2013, more people will use mobile devices than PCs to get online¹. This means that your website needs to be able to adapt/respond to the myriad of screen sizes, operating systems and browsers used by mobile devices in order to give your visitors an optimum user experience.

Adaptive means more than just being readable on a particular screen size—how fast does your site load, are you providing content that is optimal for the device (Quick content and easy navigation for phone users, more detailed and high fidelity content for tablet and desktop users, touchscreen navigation capabilities)?

Check out our infographic below for more reasons why you can’t ignore this rapidly growing world of mobile compatibility.

(Click the image for a full size version)

Infographic Text:

 Proof That You Need an Adaptive Website

Trends and Stats about the Growing Importance of Mobile Compatibility

It’s changing everything

By 2013, more people will use mobile devices than PCs to get online¹.

Top uses of mobile devices (Are you reaching customers through these mobile channels)?

• Social media
• Searching the Web
• Reading news
• Music
• Video/games

• Over 20% of Web traffic is mobile⁶
• Over 50% of phone users have smart phones⁷
• By the year 2015 there will be a phone for everyone in the world¹

User expectations and stats:

• 95% of smart phone users have searched for local information³
• 60% of users expect a mobile site to load in 3 seconds or less²
• 55% don’t recommend businesses with bad mobile websites²
• 40% turn to competitors after a bad mobile experience²
• You could be losing 10% of your business to adaptive competitors
• Internet connections on desktop computers are typically over 5 times faster than mobile connections, yet 71% of users expect a mobile site to load as fast as a desktop site²
• Average phone screen site in portrait width: 400px
• Average desktop website width: 900px

Common uses of mobile devices:

• 21% of people use their mobile device to perform trip research while on vacation – do they find you or someone else?⁵
• 70% of mobile users have compared product prices on their phones⁴
• 61% contact a company after finding them on a mobile search³
• 53% receive news on a mobile device daily⁸
• 50% of mobile searches lead to purchases⁶
• 33% view products online while physically inside the store⁹
• 17% compare service prices on mobile devices⁹

What it takes to be adaptive:

• Your site should be navigable with just a thumb
• Optimized content needs to load fast on slow mobile connections, which are typically 1/5 the speed of desktop connections
• On mobile devices, a site should adapt to only show information relevant to mobile users. This is only 5-10 pages of content on most websites
• When building a new site, going adaptive only marginally increases cost
• People should be able to read everything and press all buttons without needing to “pinch” or “zoom”
• Content needs to display consistently across several screen sizes, mobile operating systems and mobile browsers
• Adding adaptive capabilities to an existing website can cost a fraction of building a brand new website

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Sources:

1. Gartner, 2010; Google Mobile Optimization Webinar, 2011; Cisco, 2011
2. Compuware, “What Users Want from Mobile,” 2011
3. Google “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users,” 2011
4. Lightspeed Research; Google “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users,” 2011
5. Maine Office of Tourism Annual Report, 2010
6. Chitika, 2012
7. Nielson “Smartphones Account for Half of all Mobile Phones, Dominate New Phone Purchases in the US”, 2012
8. http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/tablet8
9. http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/30/pew-more-than-half-of-adults-used-cell-phones-for-purchasing-decisions-during-the-holidays/9