I got a new mobile phone back in August which means I’ve at last got a quick enough mobile connection to surf on the move. It’s a Sony Ericsson W890i which packages up everything I need: a mobile, a half way decent camera, an MP3 player and mobile Internet.

Mobile web is reaching a proportion of the population that just can’t be ignored - the iPhone has reached 0.30% of global web traffic which might sound like not a great deal but as a new medium it’s a massive increase. You’ve also got to remember the different use of web browsers on a mobile phone - behaviour is very different to when using a browser on a computer.

I’ve found the w890i to be very good for the mobile web and recommend Opera Mini as an excellent mobile browser. It just means I can access information quicker but I only tend to skim information rather than doing more in depth searching / reading. This shows why even if the mobile browsers can render standard websites you should consider a separate mobile website.

Mobile websites should be really cut back to exactly what people will want on the move. Forget pages of text explaining your service just give them the ability to search quickly and get the information they want. For a lot of companies a location search and location details is going to the core of a website. Think out of box a bit here - you might even have features that just wouldn’t work on the standard website - how about a hand reference guide?

So start thinking mobile - even the glacial-paced W3C have a best practices document.

I wrote a post the other day about the increasing use of mobile Internet and said that standards were in a mess currently. I have to take this back to a certain extent after I decided to investigate exactly how I could start developing for a mobile audience.

Standards have existed for some time and it’s more the case that the number of different browsers and screen resolutions available make things a little tricky for a web developer. However if you are following best practice for standard websites the leap to mobile shouldn’t be too painful.

Generally speaking developing for XHTML Basic 1.1 which is the basic standard level of supported by browsers at present is your starting point. Anyone using XHTML will find it easy to adapt to with just a few limitations. There is also a subset of CSS called Wireless CSS that can be used. Making sure you avoid objects such as flash, client-side scripts and also limiting images to maximum width of 120 pixels (to allow for the smallest screens) should make sure you get a success on a wide range of devices. Otherwise it’s just best practice - no table layouts, use accesskeys (0-9 work well on mobiles) and make sure your site structure is concise - people want to find things even quicker on mobiles and can easily get lost. It’s recommended to keep links to a maximum of 10 per page.

So go forth and dot mobi with the following guide as an excellent starting point.

Dot Mobi - Mobile Web Developers Guide.

An interesting report from 3 showing how they have seen a sevenfold increase in data traffic over the last six months.

The mobile broadband dongles you can get now are a great idea and stand up well against ADSL/Cable for the speed they provide (as long as you have the signal). Generally speaking you can get 1-2Mbit/s.

In addition to the dongles I can see the use of the Internet through mobile devices such as phones and PDAs is going to rocket. I for one am looking into getting an Sony Ericsson W890i this weekend which has HSDPA so I too can get the broadband speeds on the go.

One area that is still a mess is the standards regarding mobile devices but hopefully the shift in the market will see a rapid development in this area.