We all know how important the Internet has become for practically everyone on a daily basis. Companies use the Internet as a business platform, people can stay in touch easier over great distances and there’s a whole virtual universe of multimedia content available online. The best part of it all is that the Internet is now available almost anywhere in the world thanks to mobile networks. You can basically view mobile sites on your mobile phone just as you would view something on your PC or Mac. However, there’s a relatively big difference between a standard site that you view on your computer and a specialized mobile site.

Why do you need Specialized Mobile Sites?

The need for specialized mobile sites basically boils down to hardware differences between mobile phones and computers. On a standard personal computer, we always have a combination of a mouse, keyboard and a monitor of decent size. Most mobile phones are touch-screen operated, with screens only a few inches in size. This makes it very uncomfortable to browse standard web sites, especially since you need to make a lot of compromises to actually navigate through sites. For instance, a computer mouse enables us to precisely click on a link for something. We only have our own fingers for mobile phones most of the time and there’s always a chance that we might press something completely different than we were aiming to. In any case, a lot of popular web sites have both mobile and standard versions of their websites. So let’s take a look at the difference between them.

Examples of Specialized Mobile Sites

If you’re looking for examples of functional mobile sites, simply go to Facebook or Youtube on your phone. Those are just the two most popular examples. The basic purpose of a specialized mobile site is to offer almost the same functionality of a standard site to end users, while also making sure that users can navigate them accurately on touch-screen mobile phones. One of the most popular mobile phones currently in existence is Apple’s iPhone. Ever since the first generation iPhone was launched, many websites and other web services have begun making specialized mobile versions of their sites. Specialized mobile websites also have an advantage in bandwidth consumption, which is very handy for most mobile phone users with limited Internet traffic packages. It also means lower bandwidth costs for the company itself.

Mobile Site Optimizations for Smartphones

We already mentioned that mobile sites have become popular due to the iPhone, but Android-powered mobile phones have also recently begun pushing into the market. Fortunately, a competent web designer can make a separate mobile site for you in no time if you feel the need for it. Most of the development and coding is now standardized and mobile websites can be viewed on any modern mobile operating system. This includes the Apple iOS, Google Android, Microsoft Windows Mobile and Nokia’s operating system.

The term mobile commerce includes all possible transactions that you can do on the go, using your smartphone device. With the development of the overall smartphone industry, this feature has become obligatory and people are using it extensively every day. In this article, we will talk about this relatively new way to do your commerce or any other actions considering exchanging or managing your finances. We will also touch a bit on the future of this type of commerce, because there is a lot of room for improvement and implementation in new services.

What can you do with Mobile Commerce?

No matter which of the mobile operating systems you are running on your smartphone, you are enabled to do a lot of commercial procedures on it. The most common way of using mobile commerce is mobile banking, which was introduced a couple of years ago, when phones became more of Internet browsing devices rather than typical phones, used for text messages and calls. Obviously, if you want to do commerce with the help of your phone, you probably want to keep your private information and data to yourself, as someone can use this information to jeopardize your finances or privacy. A couple of years ago these networks in conjunction with mobile platforms were pretty much unsecure and people did not want to take part into this. However, smartphones you can buy today have some power inside them and feature high tech operating systems which are derived from desktop operating systems. For example, the iPhone’s iOS is a degraded Mac OS X. This desktop operating system features advanced security methods that have been preserved for usage in the iPhone.

Security Measures you need to take before doing Mobile Commerce

By default, you will have good protection of your data and transfers, since the service providers also take care of their customer’s security by scrambling their data during the transfer. This makes it harder, if not impossible, for hackers to hack into and steal other user’s data. However, it is rather troubling if someone steals your smartphone, or you lose it. If you did not take any precaution measures, the one who now has your smart phone can indefinitely spend your money as you’ve got all your information stored on your phone. To avoid problems that mobile commerce can cause, you can install software like Mobile Guard which can be activated in many different ways. As it activates, it can completely close down your phone and keep it shut down, or it can block any data network, including 2G, GPRS and EDGE, making it impossible for the thief to use your phone in any bad intentions.

The future of Mobile Commerce

The future of mobile commerce depends a lot on the platform which will be the most popular in a couple of years; however, it is expected for this service to expand in supermarkets and grocery stores, where you will be able to purchase products just by scanning the barcodes of any products. This could decrease the prices of products as well, as it would not be necessary to have clerks and cashiers.

With the introduction of smartphones as such, people are starting to use more mobile web features that can be easily accessed today with almost any phone. When 3G connection was introduced, in the early 2006, experience of browsing the web with your mobile phone was not as pleasant as it should have been, especially for business purposes. On the other hand, not many of the service providers did provide Internet connectivity, as it simply was not good enough yet to be called a feature. Today we have high speed 3G mobile networks, with the LTE network just being announced, commonly known as 4G.

How to Access Mobile Web on your Phone

Depending on the operating system you are running on your smart phone, the variety of Internet browsers and other applications strictly related to your Internet connection can get pretty huge. The most popular platforms, like iOS and Android feature many different mobile web applications. Basically, a good selection of these applications is slowly becoming the selling point of a platform. The best applications to browse the web are commonly multiplatform, meaning you can have the same piece of software installed on both of these operating systems. A good example of such an application is the Opera lineup, which includes both a Mini and a Mobile version of this, initially a desktop browser, but on your phone. If you find that iOS or Android smartphones are too expensive for you, you can always get a Nokia running Symbian S60 operating system, which will serve you well when it comes to Internet browsing. Unfortunately, this operating system is considered to be a bit dated comparing to Android or iOS, but it can still provide a decent smartphone experience.

Other means of Mobile Web

Other than browsing alone, Internet is used in a variety of applications found on your mobile device. With the latest craze going on about social networks, you will find a lot of applications which are dedicated Twitter or Facebook clients. Some applications come with all of the social networks embedded into them, but these usually cost quite a bit. A good application of such an application is Gravity, which is considered to be the best all-around social network application. If you are running Symbian OS on your Nokia, you will find this to be the absolute best for your smartphone. It features smooth user interface and exchangeable skins, which is always a nice thing to have. These mobile web solutions are always better than using a genuine Internet browsing application, since they include all the possible features and details you might need when using them, making them as versatile as a desktop computer.

Free Mobile Web Applications

Before paying for actual mobile web applications, you might want to give it a try with some free applications, or trials of fully featured apps. To do this, you can access your application store, which can be found on all the current smartphone platforms and search for web applications. Trying out a variety of mobile web applications will give you a better idea of what your smartphone can handle.

Shopping has become a modern sport. People, especially women are mainly doing the shopping. However, if you want to shop you need money. When shopping, you can pay in cash, or you can use your credit or debit card. However, you can also shop online. Stores now offer services to their customers by mobile shopping cart. It is a new form of shopping, recently announced and it is constantly evolving. Customers all over the world use this kind of shopping in this modern age of smartphones. This option offers shopping from the comfort of your home and many other benefits. You just visit your stores website through the use of your smartphone, browse for your product and make the payment.

What is a Mobile Shopping Cart?

A mobile shopping cart represents the part of a website in which the consumer is presented with an optimized form of the website for mobile viewing. The shopping cart can be programmed in almost all programming languages. It can be inserted in any part of the page. However, SEO experienced professionals and programmers always know where to put the shopping cart. It all depends on the website designer’s knowledge and in what form he will design it. Website owners were skeptics about this shopping option, but they have accepted it. Usually, an algorithm controls the selected objects by the customers, inserts them in a basket, and calculates the final price. When the selection process for the products is finished, the customer is asked for his/her information like card number, social security number and other information. It depends on the software algorithm and processing of the payment. When the customer confirms the selection and payment process, the store is obligated to send the product to the customers’ home address. This shopping cart software is simple to use and is highly efficient.

When can a Mobile Shopping Cart Be Used?

Stores and businesses have been skeptical about this shopping option. However, as the smart phone industry grew to take a higher part of the communications and different smart phone applications have been announced and used, retailers have understood that the mobile shopping cart is an excellent solution to increase their sales. They own websites, which have to be dynamic and constantly updated with new products or prices. These websites have to be optimized for every browser. By statistics made by agencies, about 70 % of the internet users worldwide use internet on their phones. The site must load quickly on the phone. There are other alternatives for online shopping known as SMS shopping, where you can pay for your product by your postpaid phone bill. However, this option is not that popular.

Are Mobile Shopping Carts Secure?

Mobile shopping carts has been followed by many controversies since its announcement. There were testimonials for personal data theft, so website owners had to use different security options. SSL certificates are one of these options. It is used because by this, the data left by the customer is secured and visible only to the store offering the product or service. So the customer should not have doubts about security. As a consumer you should always double check that the website has an SSL certificate installed or else you risk losing your personal information to hackers or websites infected with viruses.

Google has recently announced that mobile optimization will be a factor in ad quality for Adwords campaigns driving mobile search traffic. Mobile website optimization will soon be a factor of the Quality Score in AdWords.
Google wants you to get your website optimized for mobile users and this new announcement brings an incentive for you to do so as soon as possible. We know what this means forGoogle: mobile use is exploding and keeping users on-site longer, clicking ads, is great for their bottom line

But what does this mean for your business?

In the past, the extra traffic and usability for mobile visitors may have been your main reason for wanting a mobile site.

Advertisers with a higher quality score get a lower cost per click and better ad placement. If that’s not enough reason to have a mobile website, think about your visitors' experience.

You don’t want to drive any mobile users away. If they can’t access your content easily from their mobile device, you've lost them, and in the end, your business has lost potential customers and revenue.

Google also offers a few suggestions to help webmasters get started with mobile optimization:

One of the suggestion is the Google Mobile Landing page creator that will allow you to create a simple landing page for mobile. If you absolutely have no resource to create a mobile landing page now, this is an option.

Other suggestions include:

• - A simple and effective layout 
• - Design for thumbs, not mice
• - Minimal design for faster mobile web experience 
• - Make your content easy access, interactive and relevant 
• - Prioritize content
• - Use uniquely mobile features
• - Make it easy for data conversion between mobile and web 

Is it time for your business to seek professional consultation?

At Jaenovation we have been working to design and develop the most comprehensive mobile web platform that allows you to manage your content, sell products, collect donations and much more!

Having a Jaenovation Mobile-powered mobile web or ecommerce site will:

• Increase your business visibility
• - Increase your mobile revenue
• - Increase your ranking on Google
• - Increase your Adwords Quality Score that means lower cost per click and better ad placement.
• - Enable your users or customers to experience mobile

Take advantage of this cutting edge new opportunity for your business.

Interactive, software-intensive systems have changed in fundamental ways over the last 30 years. These systems have evolved into web applications that have to solve problems for vastly larger user populations. With nearly 60 million Americans currently owning smart-phones, the rapid growth and success of tablets, and improved user experience across devices, the mobile web will become a much greater component to the multifaceted world.
This is the era of the mobile web that will change people’s daily life and habits. The user’s desire to stay mobile and at the same time to be connected to the Internet has already become reality. In the next few years, larger user populations will connect to the web via mobile devices rather than via desktop personal computers. As a result, mobile web will replace most desktop web applications.

A combination of mobile web communication technologies and platforms provide mobile access to the Internet and all its resources. These are considered actively developing trends in the world of modern information technologies and this development will lead to the reconstruction of the information industries. This will ultimately change the way of daily life in the modern times.

Various services of the mobile data transmission based on the technology of mobile internet provide mobile users with a wide choice of online services. These services are about to change world radically due to the of necessity of enabling the information and other resources online.

There are some potential problems and issues that could be barrier to this shift in mobile web.

The most notable problem and issues include:

• Interoperability; multiple operating systems, browsers, devices and various data formats
• Limited memory, storage and processing power
• High cost of storage
• Application distribution- currently mobile applications are tied to a carrier
• Lack of speedy mobile internet access

These major problem and issues require taking data processing power away from the mobile
phone and creating a common platform that works for all mobile devices that could solve interoperability issues. Cloud computing that is an infrastructure where both the data storage and the data processing happen outside of the mobile device, playing an important role in solving these challenges in mobile computing. Today, the majority of applications today still do most of the data storage and processing on the mobile devices themselves and not in the cloud, which may drastically change in the next few years.

Prompted in part by the Nokia and Microsoft alliance announced, operators were urged to focus their efforts on higher-value applications and services, such as solutions for Enterprise / B2B markets and emerging opportunities such as mobile marketing, mobile-enablement of business process applications, Mobile Money, mHealth and Machine-to-Machine.

Using mobile devices to access the Internet is rapidly becoming the norm in our everyday life. Mobile handsets and smartphones are dominating the e-Commerce scene, thanks to advancing mobile navigation and user friendly interfaces. A mobile storefront makes it easy and convenient for your customers to make a purchase whenever they want and it allows a streamlined payment process to make mobile purchasing easier.

Mobile is quickly becoming the new and promising retail channel. Mobile commerce (also known as m-Commerce) is the process of selling and buying of goods and services through mobile devices. Smartphones and tablets are poised to take off as the next big platform for retailers since m-Commerce combines the advantages of powerful e-Commerce with the mobility and freedom of wireless devices. This highlights an emerging opportunity for retailers to tap into the mobile channel, and the demand for mobile e-Commerce compliant websites is on the rise. The main challenges retailers and companies face include lack of desirable software and the absence of universal standards. There is the gap between the available mobile system and the desired one. There are huge possibilities to widely use mobile trading services, but store owners on the other hand vaguely incorporate m-Commerce into their existing business models due to the lack of professional mobile shopping cart platforms. Jaenovation’s mobile shopping cart platform addresses this void.

Jaenovation’s mobile ecommerce solution supports multiple shipping and payment methods so there is no need to change your existing payment gateway account setups. Your mobile site is safe and secure, providing your customers peace of mind while making their purchase. In addition, our mobile management platform’s expandable architecture allows for third party integration, giving you a truly customizable solution. Slow sites drive away customers and revenue. Give your mobile customers the information they need, when they need it. Our mobile ecommerce is built for optimal user experience and gives mobile customers the ability to browse your products faster than other mobile web apps.

Easily manage your mobile storefront with our Mobile Content management platform

• Order history
• CMS
• CRM
• Site Search
• Order Management
• Shipping Management
• Product Tracking
• Email Marketing
• SMS Marketing
• Featured items
• Task Management
• Optimized Checkout

Learn more about Jaenovation mCommerce here.

Mobile is fast becoming one of the most important delivery channels for business today. But what's better to have: a mobile website or a mobile application ? Any mid to enterprise level company without a mobile web presence will need to take the plunge soon or risk being left behind by competing companies.

Mobile is here to stay and is quickly becoming one of the most popular ways that consumers access information and make purchases. Mobile websites are the first step for companies that are just starting to establish a mobile presence.

Why Mobile?

Everyone has heard about the rise of the mobile horizon in the past years. What has happened to enable mobile to become the central structure of online marketing and growth strategy? The reason behind mobile's newfound relevance and popularity is due to the dismissal of two former monumental barriers: device usability and device accessibility.

Device Usability

Due to the advent of new touch screen smart phones, and smart devices, mobile users are no longer handicapped by awkward interfaces and painstakingly slow device navigation. Now, with a touch of a fingertip, users can navigate browser pages, and enter information quickly and effectively into the mobile device. Ease of use has brought mobile devices incredible popularity for all forms of communication, entertainment, and commerce.

Device Accessibility

Simply put, mobile device manufacturing has seen increased technology along with increased competition. For the consumers, this means better phones and a much lower price, making smart phone technology available to both hi-end and mainstream consumers. Now that mobile devices are easy to use, and easy to obtain, a vast world of information is available to every single one of these consumers. Your company should be seen and heard by this audience on the mobile platform. A mobile website should be the primary in a multi-step plan for mobile web presence.

Removing Entry Barriers

Starting with a mobile website makes sure that the first time someone types in your URL from their mobile device, they are immediately detected as a mobile channel user and redirected to a mobile-optimized experience. This approach doesn't force your users to download an application before interacting with your brand and it can still serve a device-optimized experience to your users. This will become more important as many mainstream users don't know what an App store is and don't care to learn.

Graceful Degradation of the User Experience

With mobile websites, you will also be able to reach users that have less popular or older devices by including a variant of the mobile website design which is targeted for the 20% of viewers that are on older devices. This will serve as the lowest common denominator in your brand's mobile design. There are just too many device types in the market with unique form factors to build an optimized experience for them all. But as with all good design your brand should handle this with a graceful degradation of the user experience.

Optimize for User Experience and Conversions

Once your mobile website has been released into the market, you'll be able to learn what you did right and what you can improve. Using a mobile website as your web presence will enable you to monitor how visitors are actually using the mobile site. You can watch user behavior, measure with analytics and listen to the chatter on social media. This will help you identify areas for optimization and other issues, enabling you to continually make sure that your mobile website caters to your visitors' needs. Unlike a mobile application, a mobile website enables you to refine the experience and publish your changes to the entire user base without any user action. This means everyone will experience the new update upon their next visit, unlike a mobile application which needs viewers to download and install updates. Since there is always a portion of users who refuse to install updates, using a mobile website will make sure that users always get the most up-to-date information.

Content Management

You know the headaches different products on different platforms managed through different tools can bring. Your mobile website should be managed through a content management system (CMS). A content management system has a serious impact in terms of your ability to make changes quickly, effectively, and frequently to keep up with the fast-paced mobile information world.

Read more about Jaenovation's comprehensive mobile web CMS solution here.

Mobile Content Management System (MCMS)/ mobile website is a type of content management system (CMS) capable of storing and delivering content and services to mobile devices, such as mobile phones, smart phones, and PDAs. Mobile content management systems may be discrete systems, or may exist as features, modules or add-ons of larger content management systems capable of multi-channel content delivery. Mobile content delivery has unique, specific constraints including widely variable device capacities, small screen size, limited wireless bandwidth, small storage capacity, and comparatively weak device processors.

Users will be able to post content from their mobile device. For devices where it is available, users will be able to share photos and videos through the app or email. Text posts can include status updates, micro-blogs, comments, forum posts, and messages. User content includes all of the key social features: commenting, rating, tagging, and sharing and can include geo-tagging from the users post-location if available.

Demand for mobile content management increased as mobile devices became increasingly ubiquitous and sophisticated. MCMS technology initially focused on the business to consumer (B2C) mobile market place with ringtones, games, text-messaging, news, and other related content. Since, mobile content management systems have also taken root in business to business (B2B) and business to employee (B2E) situations, allowing companies to provide more timely information and functionality to business partners and mobile workforces in an increasingly efficient manner. A 2008 estimate put global revenue for mobile content management at US$8 billion.

Key features

Multi-channel content delivery

Multi-channel content delivery capabilities allow users to manage a central content repository while simultaneously delivering that content to desktop web browsers, mobile phones and other devices. Content is stored in a raw format to which device-specific presentation styles can be applied.

Specialized templating system

While traditional web content management systems handle templates for only a handful of web browsers, mobile CMS templates must be adapted to the very wide range of target devices with different capacities and limitations. There are two approaches to adapting templates: multi-client and multi-site. The multi-client approach makes it possible to see all versions of a site at the same domain (e.g. sitename.com), and templates are presented based on the device client used for viewing. The multi-site approach displays the mobile site on a targeted sub-domain (e.g. mobile.sitename.com, m.sitename.com or sitename.mobi).

Location-based content delivery

Location-based content delivery provides targeted content, such as information, advertisements, maps, directions, and news, to mobile devices based on current physical location. Currently, GPS (global positioning system) navigation systems offer the most popular location-based services. Navigation systems are specialized systems, but incorporating mobile phone functionality makes greater exploitation of location-aware content delivery possible.

Advertising and Promotions

Advertising and Promotions allow users to add sponsored sections throughout the app and its content as well as including special promotional areas as pages similar to the micro sites built on the web. These can be used for signup and login, broadcasting content out through the app to linked social accounts, and receiving updates and alerts from those social sites.

JAENOVATION Mobile CMS includes a wide variety of features and functionality available both in Apple, Android, and HTML 5 applications built by the Platform as well as Mobile APIs that can be integrated into existing apps and mobile web pages.

Global market research firm Synovate has released data from its global mobile phones survey, revealing just how attached Americans are to their cell phones.

Synovate surveyed over 8,000 cell phone owners across 11 markets - including 504 in the US - to learn more about how people are using (and, in some cases, hiding behind) these devices, which features they use (and don't) and how they really feel about them.

The Synovate survey showed how much people depend on their phones. Three quarters of the survey respondents - including 82% of Americans - never leave home without their phones, and 36% of people across the world (42% of Americans) go as far as to say they 'cannot live without' their cell phone.

Synovate's global head of amedia, Steve Garton, said these small-but-powerful devices are so ubiquitous that by last year, more human beings owned one than did not.

"This sheer volume, coupled with enormous marketing potential that is just starting to be realised, means that marketers need to understand as much as possible about how people use their phones, how they feel about them - and what they want more of.

"One very important point about the marketing potential of the phone is that people tend to classify the mobile phone differently to mainstream media like television, radio, print, outdoor and even the internet. Most people do not think of phones as a media platform at all."

Overall, 23% of respondents across 11 markets own more than two mobile phones. Americans are among the most likely to own at least two at 33%, along with the French (34%). Brits and Americans were the most likely to own a smartphone at 21% and 20%, respectively.

In an increasingly mobile-literate world, only around a third of US respondents agreed they did not know how to use most of the features on their phones. So what are people actually using them for?

Putting aside the almost ubiquitous calling and SMS functions, the three features most used on a regular basis are:

• Alarm clock – 67% globally use this regularly / 56% of Americans
• Camera – 62% globally / 68% of Americans
• Games – 33% globally / 31% of Americans

"As the mobile becomes more of an all-in-one device, many other businesses are facing challenging times. However, the opportunities for mobile manufacturers and networks are enormous," said Garton.

Overall, 17% of respondents use email on their mobile on a regular basis, led by 26% in the US and 25% in the UK. Similarly, an overall 17% use internet browsing, topped by the UK at 31% and the US at 26%. Eleven percent say they social network regularly via mobile, again led by the UK (17%) and the US (15%).

As the number of people using mobile devices for internet related activities such as web browsing, city surfing, and social media steadily increases, the way that businesses and marketers promote and grow their business is also changing.

Mobile websites, SMS marketing, and tag scanning is changing the way businesses reach out to customers and meet their demands.

The survey showed that the US and the UK lead the way in mobile functions that require 3G access:

Mobile Websites allow the viewer to be redirected to a mobile-friendly version of a website. This elimiates the teensy-tiny writing and navigational issues that cause frustration among users. Big players such as Amazon.com have already implemented a mobile version of their website, allowing customers to browse and shop from the comfort of their mobile device.

SMS, or short message service, marketing allows users to receive coupons and other special offers via their mobile device. The customer can then redeem their offer in person by showing or scanning the offer message at the place of business. This benefits both businesses and customers as a simple and hassle-free way of receiving marketing material.

Tag scanning simplifies mobile navigation by the use of small scannable image "tags" to direct customers to a mobile website content. The scanning of images tags is done through a tag application downloaded by the user. Businesses can change web destination of the tag image at any time without creating a new tag image . Tags can be used on print materials and websites to direct customers to online promotional material using their mobile devices.

Mobile marketing is a growing and quickly-advancing field. For a complimentary marketing analysis and business consulation, contact Jaenovation today.