A NEW WAVE OF TECHNOLOGY
Let's get one thing straight: the mobile web is not the same as what you see on your desktop or laptop computer. With a unique set of restrictions and challenges, duplicating your site pixel for pixel from a desktop to a mobile device is a nearly impossible task - and rightfully so. The user's needs from a desktop to a mobile device differ drastically. To produce a successful mobile web campaign, as a developer one must address the issues of the devices, and coordinate them with the goals of a site for the user.
The technology and power of mobile devices continues to advance. With the number of device users world wide vastly outnumbering the number of desktop web-surfers, the mobile web is definitely one frontier yet to be utilized properly for the mass market. Initiatives are beginning to develop in hopes to create a set of web standards, to hopefully one day make the mobile web experience one of consistency and usability for those who use it. There is a long road ahead, but it is a beginning.
Until standards are the norm for the mobile web and the devices used, as a developer you can take certain steps to ensure a useable experience of your website to the mobile community. This includes understanding the basics of mobile design, practices for testing your mobile site, and an ultimate realization of the limitations and benefits presented by the mobile web environment
...at least for now.
THE BASICS
Learn what the expectations and parameters are for common mobile devices so that you can ensure a consistent and useable experience for mobile web surfers.
"The best advice for creating a strong mobile information architecture is to keep it as simple as possible."
- Mobile Web Developer's Guide
