Background Research > Mobile Browsing Becoming Mainstream

“A global increase in cell phone ownership and a rise in the use of wireless services by people over 35 may lead cell phones to dominate Web browsing, a new study says.”

I personally find it unlikely that a medium dominated by designers who have traditionally been produced to work for the screen or print will adapt so quickly to producing work for wireless phone browsing, this sort of transformation will happen at the rate of the designers as opposed to its demand from consumers. Although the corporate force of commercialism dictates that the medium will inevitably become more prevalent. However I feel this will not be because it is on the whole that useful or desirable to the consumer, more that it will line the pockets of the corporate monkeys that drive it forward. I feel progress should be for the right reasons. What is our society becoming?

“90 percent of households in Japan, South Korea and urban China own cell phones, as do 80 percent of households in Western Europe, 60 percent in Canada and three out of four households in the U.S.”

From this statistic I would grant the fact that there is huge potential for the medium to develop onto the mobile phone, this statistic also makes it very commercially viable, but so far this seems to be the driving force behind its development rather than its practicality.

”27 percent of adults aged 35 to 54 who are living in households with cell phones claim to have browsed the Internet on their phone. Only 21 percent of them did in 2004, according to Wright. Twelve percent of those 55 and older also engage in mobile browsing. “

I would expect from that statistic that this form of commerce is attempting to target the older age bracket as they have more spending power. This is a low percentage and a very vague estimate, how many of those people do this regularly? This also begs the question that how many of those people would actually purchase something using a mobile phone, and does the restrictions of the viewable area lead to infringing customers rights on product misinterpretation. I feel a law suit coming on! It is well known that older customers are more sceptical about online buying, let alone divulging into this on their mobile phones.