- Easier to read and navigate on a small screen
- No zooming in/out needed
- Shorter page load times on 3G/EV-DO/EDGE data
- Avoid inefficiencies and running down of small data plan caps (such as AT&T’s 200 MB and 2GB data plans)
- Additional functionality on touchscreen phones
- It’s very simple to add!
If you ready to provide a mobile site, there is WPTouch 1.9.x*, WordPress Mobile Edition and WordPress Mobile Pack and it doesn’t cost anything to add.
* For more features and customizability, there is WPTouch 2.0 Pro, which costs $29.
Why? I mean, seriously, why? At the rate mobile browsers are improving, it doesn’t justify the effort for something that will be virtually obsolete in a short amount of time. Why change the web to accommodate mobile devices when mobile software (and hardware) designers are changing mobile devices to accommodate the web? The author of Daily Blog Tips agrees, so don’t ask him about it.
Yes, there are some really crappy web designs out there that run seriously sluggish and are just a pain to browse, but bad web design is apparent whether you use a PC or a mobile device to browse them. (And I know I’m not immune to bad web design… BtNHRV runs really sluggish on my Nokia E71, but I’m not about to change it because I’m confident that it’ll be a vastly improved experience on whatever mobile device I happen to buy next.)
Crappy mobile browsers are pretty much of the past since most smartphones nowadays uses Webkit. Apple, RIM, Google and Nokia are already using this with their latest model. Pretty much Webkit allows a more richer experience with Javascript and AJAX, which a vast majority of browsers except Opera Mini/Mobile can’t support.
Webkit on Mobile devices also means one thing… it can load the page exactly like it does in Safari and Google Chrome… but why not just leave it like it is? Cellular providers like AT&T are ending unlimited data plans and people are more worried about going over the data cap and not wanting to deal with expensive overages, optimizing blogs with a mobile plugin for WordPress is the only solution to put the worry of loading pages behind (and these mobile plugins don’t tamper with the main theme and allow switching to the desktop theme if you use WPTouch or WordPress Mobile Edition.)
Cell Phone technology had changed ever since the iPhone… Smartphones are becoming more popular more than ever… I highly doubt anyone would ever browse the internet on a full featured phone opposed to a smartphone since they are simply outdated and most people who use them probably won’t care about the mobile web anyways.
P.S: I own a iPhone 3GS and it’s a pain in the neck to comment on a blog or even read it on such a small device. Not only that, I use the iPhone a lot when I am out… and you can’t expect me to take my iPad/Macbook Pro out when I am walking to someplace, right?