We wrote yesterday about why we think a mobile-optimized site is a good approach for many businesses looking to target mobile devices and tablets. NPR Digital Services also has a write up on why it's a great (and necessary) approach for their station sites.
I’ve excerpted some major points from the article:
- Mobile-optimized web pages are rapidly becoming the most important way to grow your online audience.
- Mobile usage is at an inflexion point. What was once a small, secondary channel will soon be a major distribution channel for your content.
- Mobile now represents 17% of the unique visitors to NPR.org.
- Given the number of people buying smartphones and tablets, this data isn’t surprising.
- For NPR, there are twice as many mobile web users as mobile app users.
- This means, of course, that you can’t just send mobile users to your normal web site. It will look awful on smaller screens, might not even work properly, and doesn’t necessarily cater to the unique needs of your mobile audience. Creating a site optimized for mobile devices is essential for seeing the type of audience growth described earlier.
- Mobile web is easier and less expensive to build. We’ve saved the best news for last: Mobile-optimized web sites cost a lot less to create. For an app, stations have to create multiple versions customized for iOS and many Android versions and have to maintain multiple codebases. And even then, many device owners won’t be able to use it.
Read the rest on the NPR Digital Services site.