Late last year the Telstra Smartphone Index 2010 Fact Sheet was released, providing a summary of the state of play in the world of smartphone take-up and usage. As a reminder, here are just a few highlights:

• 36% of the Australian mobile population own a smartphone and smartphone ownership is expected to grow to more than half the Australian mobile population within 12 months.
• One in five (22%) smartphone owners are over 50 and 41% are over 40.
• 89% of Australian smartphone owners have accessed the internet from their mobile phone.
• More than half of smartphone owners are accessing the internet from their mobiles daily.
• Those aged 16-29 are the most frequent mobile web users with 67% saying they access the internet on their smartphones daily; followed by 30-49 year olds of which around half use the mobile internet daily.

These are great insights and should be considered by every online business. In addition to these points, from a local perspective we have seen website visitor statistics indicating that more than 10% of website visits have been made from mobile devices. We have seen one prominent Newcastle business with 11% of visitors accessing their site from iOS devices alone (iPhone, iPad, iPod).

This is quite a finding. Many businesses are still designing their website imagining that visitors will just be viewing from a desktop or laptop. Many sites are still developed using Flash animations on their welcome page or indeed using Flash throughout the whole architecture of the website. As we have covered previously, iOS devices such as iPhones and iPads will not display Flash, leaving gaping holes in the website.

There are ways of working around this, creating engaging websites (including movement) using other technologies - even detecting what the device is which is accessing the page and presenting a version of the site accordingly.

If you have never seen what your website looks like on something other than your own computer, we recommend doing so! Globally, in Australia and here in Newcastle, the use of mobile technology to access the internet is increasing. Are you being seen in your best light?

We're happy to show you how your site looks on an iPhone or iPad if you don't have access to one yourself - and help you work out "where to next" as your site visitors become increasingly mobile.

Insight Images