Smartphones and the new Web Design and Development

January 14, 2011

The Swedish company Krusell Corp. recently presented their top 10 most popular smartphone mobile devices, for 2010. This list was created based on the actual sales of phones rather than related, device-specific, accessories.

Here is the list, note that the majority are touch-screen smart phones:

1.       iPhone 4
2.       Nokia 3720 Classic
3.       HTC HD2
4.       iPhone 3G
5.       Nokia E52
6.       Samsung i9000 Galaxy S
7.       Nokia 6700 Classic
8.       HTC Desire
9.       Nokia 6303 Classic
10.   Samsung B2100
These numbers would suggest that the internet is being browsed, more and more, via smartphones. To illustrate this further, we have compiled the following statistic for web-usage and web-access in 2010:
Computers: 96.11%
SmartPhones: 3.76% (+481.17% compared to 2009)
Other: 0.15% (Nintendo Wii and Playstation, etc.)
What this means for web design and development
When designing websites we have to consider screen resolutions and browser capacities of modern smartphones, as well as the more traditional desktop / laptop alternatives. While It is not yet critical, with the growth rate of 481.17% in a single year, smartphones will account for considerable share of web browsing and application usage. Conversely, web presence must account for this growing techno-niche and adjust accordingly, to allow greater access and greater usability to the increasingly growing market of web-accessing smartphones.
We are continuing to analyze the North American and Pan Asian statistics of the smartphone vs. traditional web usage, and will continue to update the over-all results.