Business

Why Don’t Apple or ATT Have iPhone-Ready Designs?

{ August 14th, 2007 }

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Evan Roberts at MarketingShift ponders:

When you first fire up the iPhone’s safari browser you get a few default bookmarks, two of which are Apple.com and Att’s My Account page. Now my question is why are these two site’s not iPhone ready?

The answer is simple: Apple designed the iPhone to browse the standard internet.

Now this isn’t news. We’re all well aware of the Apple’s iPhone sales shtick.
From Apple.com:

With its advanced Safari browser, iPhone lets you see web pages the way they were designed to be seen…

We know this device is the first of its kind.

We also know that Steve Jobs anticipated the hundreds of iPhone-focused applications.

But do you think he could have predicted Bank of America creating a version of their site for the iPhone? Do you think he saw himself browsing his Facebook friends, restarting his Media Temple server, or listening to an ESPN podcast straight from an iPhone optimized site?

He’s Steve Jobs. How could he have not?

So the questions still stands:

Why aren’t Apple.com and ATT.com iPhone ready?

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Let our team of designers optimize your website, app, or blog for the iPhone. Click here for a free quote!

An E-Commerce Must: Get iPhone-Friendly

{ August 13th, 2007 }

Companies that want to maintain a position of great advancement need a comprehensive iPhone optimization strategy.

Imad Mouline of E-Commerce Times writes:

Web site owners need to optimize their sites for the iPhone so they deliver the same high-quality experiences that Mac and PC users enjoy.

Imad continues with seven tips for iPhone optimization:

First, the fact that a Web site works in a popular browser such as Internet Explorer or even Apple’s standard Safari browser is no guarantee that the site will work well on the iPhone. There’s even a chance the site won’t work at all. The iPhone’s browser is a special version of Safari just for the iPhone. It lacks, for example, support for Flash and Java, technologies heavily used on business Web sites.

Second, it has portrait and landscape modes offering two very different experiences of the same Web site. Third, iPhone users are often looking at less of a Web page than they would on a desktop computer — they will be doing a lot of zooming in and out. Fourth, the iPhone lacks the processing power of a desktop, meaning rich applications like those made in Ajax (which the iPhone does support) will challenge the device.

Fifth, users lack precision input control because their input tool is a finger, not a mouse. Sixth, the iPhone examines Web pages for carefully sized blocks that fill the screen when finger-tapped (that’s the zooming effect). Seventh, forms are tricky because they don’t always automatically summon the iPhone virtual keyboard.

Read the full post at MacNewsWorld.

Give Your Brand the iPhone Halo

{ August 11th, 2007 }

iMedia Connection shares some tips on how to get your site onto the iPhone, and how to keep it there:

Be compatible with Safari
The iPhone browser is based on the same WebKit technology that powers Safari. If your brand site works in Safari, at least you know that it will be basically operable in the iPhone.
Create a new, short URL
As much as Apple has tried to improve the thumb-numbing experience of typing into a Smartphone, it’s still aggravating to type long URLs into the browser. By creating a nice, short URL, you’re helping users get to your site without any hassle.
Use the regular site to promote the iPhone site
One of the niceties of the iPhone browser is that it automatically syncs with your desktop-based Safari bookmarks. Personally, I have a folder set aside in my bookmarks menu just for sites that are worth visiting via the iPhone. If you have developed a site that is specially formatted for use with the iPhone, promote it on your main web property and in your email marketing. Aside from linking your brand with the “cool factor” of the iPhone for those who don’t have the device, you’re also giving the multitude of iPhone users a quick way to keep your site effortlessly accessible from the palm of their hand.

Read the full article.