So
your organization has created, or plans to create soon, a stripped-down mini
version of your web site to accommodate the tiny screens of mobile devices.
That’s not enough, according to a new report from Forrester Research.
The
report, Why eBusiness Pros Need a Five-Year Plan, says mobile-optimized web
sites should be considered just “a pragmatic starting point.” Consumers will
expect more—and soon. Organizations, whether commercial or institutional,
should begin planning now to offer more mobile-enabled services and
transactions by 2017-18.
As
Mobile Marketer points out in its
article about Forrester’s report, more people are latching onto smartphones and
tablets to help manage many aspects of their personal and professional lives no
matter where they are at any given moment. These mobile users want their devices
to handle a wide variety of tasks, which means they need more than just
simplified web sites.
The
article says organizations will have to build their own mobile apps in order to
provide the tailored services consumers will need, noting, “Strong mobile-first
strategies are likely to involve native apps that can tap into a device’s
technologies, as opposed to browser or hybrid apps, which are less able to
support different capabilities of mobile phones.”
