Mobile website

The mobile Web refers to browser-based Internet services accessed from handheld mobile devices, such as smartphones or feature phones, through a mobile or other wireless network.

Traditionally, the World Wide Web has been accessed via fixed-line services on laptops and desktop computers. However, the Web is now more accessible by portable and wireless devices. An early 2010 ITU (International Telecommunication Union) report said that with current growth rates, web access by people on the go — via laptops and smart mobile devices — is likely to exceed web access from desktop computers within the next five years. In January 2014 mobile Internet use exceeded desktop use in the USA. The shift to mobile Web access has accelerated since 2007 with the rise of larger multitouch smartphones, and since 2010 with the rise of multitouch tablet computers. Both platforms provide better Internet access, screens, and mobile browsers, or application-based user Web experiences, than previous generations of mobile devices. Web designers may work separately on such pages, or pages may be automatically converted, as in . Faster speeds, smaller, feature-rich devices, and a multitude of applications continue to drive explosive growth for mobile Internet traffic. The 2017 Virtual Network Index (VNI) report produced by Cisco Systems, Inc. forecasts that by 2021, there will be 5.5 billion global mobile users (up from 4.9 billion in 2016). Additionally, the same 2017 VNI report forecasts that average access speeds will increase by roughly 3 times from 6.8 Mbit/s to 20 Mbit/s in that same time span with video comprising the bulk of the traffic (78%).

The distinction between mobile Web applications and native applications is anticipated to become increasingly blurred, as mobile browsers gain direct access to the hardware of mobile devices (including accelerometers and GPS chips), and the speed and abilities of browser-based applications improve. Persistent storage and access to sophisticated user interface graphics functions may further reduce the need for the development of platform-specific native applications.

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