PDA to Z

For those who view trains, airports and taxis as an extension of the office, developments in PDA accessibility of websites will be welcome news.

Over the past few years, as well as the boom in number and variety of PDAs, huge steps have been taken in technology and internet connectivity. As a result, companies around the world are scrambling to produce PDA versions of their sites to cater to mobile users. ‘We have had three inquiries in the past week relating to the use of mobile devices and website content; this time last year there were no inquiries like that,’ notes Nick Tatt, managing director of UK-based online design agency Tinderhouse.

One leader in the website world, Siemens, has recently been focusing on mobile accessibility with the launch of dedicated content for PDAs via http://mobile.siemens.com. ‘Websites can’t be easily browsed on mobile devices so, after carrying out a market study and realizing how fast PDAs are being adopted, we decided to offer a specific channel for mobile users,’ says Florian Hiessl, chief editor of Siemens.com. He adds that the content available on the mobile site is just a start: a relaunch is planned in the next few months that will have more involvement from Siemens’ press and IR departments.

Siemens also hopes to streamline the process of updating content to both sites. ‘Currently, if we add new information to the corporate site we have to add it to the mobile version separately,’ explains Hiessl. ‘In future we want this to happen automatically.’

At Thai Beverage, the mobile version of the company’s website is so important that the home page displays the company logo and two options: PDA website and PC website. ‘We learned from an analyst that some investors like to listen to quarterly results conference calls on their mobile phones when they are stuck in traffic,’ explains Richard Jones, head of IR at Thai Beverage. ‘This gave us an idea about how crucial mobile devices are, so we converted our website to be easily readable on a PDA. We keep pictures to a minimum and just display a narrow column of text. The site is still in its infancy, but our target is to offer a short column of information per subject and even allow users to open PDFs.’

When in Rome
Italian mobile media firm Buongiorno has also embraced PDA technology, launching its .mobi site in May 2007. ‘This site avoids the typical frustrations that come from browsing a wap.com/mobile or m/name.com site,’ notes Eleonora Villanova, global PR and events executive at Buongiorno. ‘To increase ease of use, every link on the .mobi site is matched with a keyboard number that allows users to gain immediate access to the desired page.’

Oya Yavuz, director of IR at Netherlands-based bio-technology firm Crucell, notes that an increase in competition between service providers means the cost of creating a PDA site has fallen. Crucell currently offers only stock information to PDA users, but is looking into providing access to peer comparisons, statistical information and press releases. ‘Now, you have to go to our website to get the link to access the PDA site,’ says Yavuz. ‘The goal is that whenever an email is sent out, the PDA link will be included, too.’

Even companies that haven’t yet fully embraced mobile sites are recognizing the growth in this area, as Tim Birch, marketing manager of engineering firm Foseco, notes. ‘We have a link on our site for PDA access, but are currently undecided as to whether to offer more content to mobile devices,’ he says. ‘However, we have taken the precaution of registering the foseco.mobi domain name should we conclude that this type of online service offers value.’

‘Over the last few years we decided to take the mobile space more seriously, as we see market demand growing and technology maturing,’ adds Ed Jay, senior vice president of Thomson One product management. Thomson recently launched Thomson One Mobile, which delivers real-time quotes, market data and alerts to PDAs. ‘Five years ago PDA technology was slow and cumbersome; now, the software has improved as rapidly as it did with desktop computers,’ says Jay.

Teething troubles
There are still some problems with the technology. ‘All PDAs handle content display in different ways; this makes it difficult to be consistent,’ explains Tatt. Siemens dealt with this challenge by testing its mobile site on the five most popular PDAs before launching.

With technology developing so rapidly, it may be the case that these PDA versions of corporate websites are just a stop-gap – something that exists while PDAs are good enough to access a great deal of internet information, but not good enough to cope with all aspects of a regular website.

‘We recently looked at the PC version of our website using the new iPhone, and we could nearly browse it as well as the PDA version,’ says Hiessl. ‘In the near future we expect websites will seamlessly adapt to whatever size and make of device you’re using.’

Perhaps in a few years the idea of creating a separate mobile version of your site will be an antiquated notion – just like the notion that leaving the office means leaving work behind.