Here is some data from the Nielson group on smartphone penetration:

For The Young, Smartphones No Longer A Luxury Item

If you look at the 18-24 year old segment, 56% of those surveyed own a smartphone.  So, if we can extrapolate out, that is quite a wave of mobile traffic coming to your website.  Your customers may not be using mobile devices to access your sites today, but this indicates that things are changing fast.  Within the next 5 years, most websites will need to be designed for mobile, OR have a second site aimed at mobile users.

One thing I do think is that many sites can be adapted to display reasonably well on a mobile device.  So maybe that’s the play to make – otherwise you’ll be maintaining 2 sites, and compromising your content layout and structure.

The other day the FBI took down megaupload.com for copyright violations, etc. (meaning piracy).  Here’s a link to the story if you missed it:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399105,00.asp

But here’s another part of the story – millions of “legitimate” users lost access to any files they had stored there.  This type of “file storage” site is part of “the cloud” we’ve been hearing so much about.  It’s about moving your files and applications to network based storage, so you can retrieve them from anywhere.  When megaupload was closed, all access to the site was immediately terminated.  So if you had any files there, too bad.

This highlights one of the dangers of storing files and/or applications in “the cloud” – namely that your files are held by some company, somewhere.  They are subject to legal action, hackers, financial troubles, and internal negligence.  In short, you just can’t be sure who’s holding and protecting your files.

Also, keep in mind what the “Terms of Service” of the service say.  Do they own the files you upload?  What can they do with them?  It used to be that “content was king” – but these days “data is king” – websites like google are all too eager to give you free services, free email, etc.  What they get in return is your data – which they can scan, data-mine, etc. for value.

Anyway, be wary of the cloud!

Yep, I finally broke down and bought the relatively new Amazon Fire tablet.  People are increasingly browsing the web using mobile devices, so it was time to get one myself.

A few observations – despite what some people claim, typing is rather slow.  I find the keys a little small for my fingers, so I have to be careful.  If you are a touch typer, you’ll be slow.

It’s hard to click links or form elements on a website – I know you can zoom in, but in a normal view it can be extremely challenging to press in the right spot for the link.  I find myself longing for a stylus for better precision.

Otherwise, I like it.  Amazon has it synchronizing pretty well with their site, so you can get your content easily to the tablet.  I’m not into the apps yet, but for reading and light browsing, it’s a nice piece of hardware.

In a recent usability study, users were asked to complete some normal tasks using mobile web sites.   Using standard smartphones, the users could complete 62% of the tasks assigned.  That seems reasonable for these small and slow devices…but I’d note two things:

1.  These were mobile web sites – designed specifically for users of these types of phones.  That says to me that we need to do a lot better with our mobile sites.  It also indicates that maybe smartphones are a little too small to use for everything.  Imagine if we did away with 8.5×11 inch paper and forced content to be communicated on 3×5 index cards?  It never happened, even though the “technology” was there.

2.  38% of tasks failed!  That’s a huge number if you are trying to sell something, or provide customers with information they need.

I’d also say that the future of the mobile web is very much a question mark.  Do all websites need to offer fully functional mobile counterparts, or some sort of hybrid?  Meaning that some functionality is available for a mobile site, but not everything.  It strikes me that the screen size is a bit limitation, and that people will realize that.  Perhaps future smartphones will provide some way to cast a virtual screen that’s larger, or something.  In the meantime, I think people will continue to use multiple devices and accept the limitations of each.

If you are a mobile merchant – that is, you often set up a booth to sell your wares, or collect payments from clients while on the road, then having a solution to take credit card payments might appeal to you.  CDG Commerce offers just the thing you need – a wireless terminal.  Take a look:

CDG's wireless credit card terminal

CDG Commerce is known for providing a low cost processing solution, and this is no different.  The wireless access is $20 / month, and the merchant account is an additional $10 (which includes a web virtual terminal, and ecommerce capabilities).  If you are looking for low cost processing, this is it!

You can read more and apply for the service here.