Evolving Brands

The demand for mobile telephony is continuously growing. South Africa has one of the highest penetration rates in developing countries. This growth in mobile telephony has yielded over millions mobile-phone users, compared with 5m fixed-line subscribers.

The chief driver has been the prepaid sector, which now accounts for over 85% of all users. Access to internet in South Africa is slightly lower than their northern brothers, but is an area of growth.

The mobile web is very much a context, content, and component-specific environment. Or put another way, access to web content on a mobile device is largely influenced by surrounding conditions, informational relevance to the task at hand, and the feature capabilities of the device being used.

Unlike the desktop web experience, where screen space is liberal, web access is fast and reliable, and data input is facilitated by keyboard and mouse, the mobile web experience is often a small screen, intermittent, one-handed experience. Invariably, this often leads to leaner content and a reduced feature set in comparison to desktop web content, but it also leads to opportunities unavailable in the desktop web environment: location-specific data, on-the-go messaging, and of course voice communication to name a few.

Any mobile web strategy must begin with an understanding of the target audience and what they want from a site or app, and what the contextual relevance of such a site or app is. Ask yourself, What is relevant to my users and the tasks, problems, and needs they may encounter while being mobile? Begin by answering that question, and you’re guaranteed to start on the right foot.

Factors to consider:

• The scale of the mobi
• Target Audience
• Browsing Experience
• Compatibility with various handsets
• Functionality