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Why the iPhone Opens Doors for Online Marketing |
Posted by Peter Genuardi at Jun 12, 2008 05:28 PM CDT Categories: Accessibility , Technology , Usability |
This week Apple, Inc. announced that they are releasing a new version of the iPhone. The release of this news included such delicious tidbits as new features (like GPS), greater speed (on 3G networks it'll run twice as fast as the old iPhone), and the best part, which is it'll cost half the price. The only thing for me, better than all of this news, is that my contract with T-Mobile ends the VERY SAME DAY as the new iPhone comes out. Sorry T-Mobile, but all those dropped calls and mixed up bills will be coming back to you in spades.
Really though, I think the fact that Apple will introduce a much more accessible and widely distributed iPhone (and spurn a number of other cell phone manufacturers to imitate the) means good things for those of us focused on online engagement.
Here's why.
If you have any smart phone other than the iPhone, you know that the web browsing experience is horrible at best. The vast majority of the web sites on the planet have not been retrofitted for small screens and phone browsers have limited support for things like CSS and JavaScript, nevermind secure pages. For those of you who don't have smartphones, just think back to the wonderful world of web browsing, circa 1996...and then take away your mouse. This sad state of affairs has limited phone based engagement to the things that handsets can do right, like mobile messaging. As much as I like getting messages from Bono and advocacy alerts from Human Rights Campaign, I can't help but observe that it's not the most rich medium on earth. Also, even the best sites developed for mobile phones (see Orbitz and the New York Times, for example) lack much depth of content and interactivity.
The iPhone has made one of the greatest leaps in technology in years (and I'm surprised this doesn't get more coverage) by letting web surfers use the full featured Safari browser. Plus you can touch the screen to click and scroll, very much like the mouse or touch pad you use today. Check out the Safari demo on this page.
Now, some of you will point out that only about that there are only a few million iPhones in use AND that most sites aren't optimized for the Safari browser. But what I'm saying is that as these numbers go up, so too will the need, desire, and incentive for those of us who market our causes online to develop for them.
I love mobile messaging and will keep browsing with my old skool smartphone. But, I'm telling you, keep an eye out for the iPhone, its imitators, and the opportunities that such a rich phone-based browsing experience present to us all.
Also, if you get excited about "rich phone-based browsing experiences" like I do, you need to get out more.
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