According to ourmobileplanet.com, the penetration of mobile smartphones in Australia stands at 37% and will reach 50% within a few months. This is higher than in the USA at 31% and vies with smartphone penetration in Singapore.
A smartphone is a device with a relatively large screen and capable of Internet access on the move. iPhones and Android devices predominate in this space.
We are warned that users check prices and availability of goods and services online on their smartphones and will click-to-call when a "Call Now" button is placed centrally in the website home page.
Earlier this year, I developed a "Flash-free, mobile-friendly" version of my own website on a sub-domain of www.daiwynn.com. www.m.daiwynn.com uses the ubiquitous "m." to denote a "cut-down" version of a website suitable for loading and display on a hand-held device. Since Apple's IOS operating system does not support Adobe Flash for animations, images on my mobile site are still and of lower resolution for faster loading. Furthermore, the 320px X 480px screen of an iPhone tends to be viewed most often in portrait format, even though it can be viewed in landscape for wider images.
Buttons are large for multi-touch screen use, and text is larger for easy reading. I have a simple home page displaying my weekly painting image, an "about" page with a simple artist statement, and a "contact" page with my contact details. I don't yet have a "Call Now!" button allowing a user to "click-to-call".
Needless to say, traffic on m.daiwynn.com is minimal.
Assuming that users know about my mobile website, why would they want to view a tiny image of my weekly painting on a tiny screen? Isn't art better displayed on a high-resolution 27 inch iMac cinema screen? And why would potential art buyers feel the urgent need to call then and there to conclude a deal?
I suppose one could also argue, as I have done previously, that art is best viewed in close proximity, preferably hanging on a light-coloured wall within a metre of the viewer. And it may well be true that a potential buyer will use his/her iPhone to determine the location of that wall.
In a determined effort to not second-guess the intentions of those mysterious potential buyers, I have invested time and effort in developing a "Flash-free, mobile-friendly" website at m.daiwynn.com. In this game, one never knows where that big cigar-smoking man in the stetson hat is lurking.
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