That`s right, this is what is happening now. We cannot help anymore, but devices like iPhone, Android and all kind of tablet computers grows in popularity. What does this mean for you as a business owners? You cannot ignore anymore millions of potential customers who search for your business on their smartphone.  We know that it is very important to have an ordinary website, but not always aware of this “little one”, mobile friendly. It means, help all those people mentioned above easy to find you.
I myself use iPhone everyday to search for something or how to get to certain place. Let me tell you short story. I was going to networking meeting in Tokyo the other day. I knew which station to get off, but I didn`t know how exactly to get there. Luckily me, I made basic website for restaurant owner where the meet up took place. I used one of the most popular pages requested to have, which is “Find Us” with Google map and link to business place. So, I just went to that page and clicked on map and Viola! I got my direction. Quick and easy. What would happen if I didn`t have prepared mobile site ? Well, there are two solutions:
1. go to that venue website on my iphone, wait long before PC version shows up, scroll up, left, right and down to find address or map and go from there.
2. input address in Japanese characters onto Google map and try to locate them from there.
It looks like a lot of work, isn`t it?  I would probably be able to get there by the time I searched on full website in small device. How about if I didn`t know any Japanese characters? I live the answer for you. I found very good article yesterday. It`s about smartphone “fever”  spreading in Japan. It`s worth to read.

[hyperlink family="Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif" size="16" color="286300" textshadow="1" alignment="left" weight=bold" style="normal" lineheight="110" linkurl="http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnist/smart-phone-fever-takes-over-japan-1.16479" linkwindow="_self"]Smartphone Fever Takes Over Japan[/hyperlink]

They write about Japan, but believe me, the “fever” takes over whole world. Japan was always different with their technology regarding mobile industry, this is why I think a lot of media point into this country. Many years ago, while other countries had SIM cards in their phones, Japan had phones with number attached. Today, everything is different and even though phones in Japan are still really cool, JapanInc follows western standards. Now there are SIM cards or rather USIM cards in the phone too. As article says and it`s true, people in the train surfing on their phones immediately after get in, including myself.  It`s kind of interesting to see 10 people sitting next to each other and almost everyone do the same thning, like they were programmed (LOL).  At the end I want to tell you, that I often skip pages, which are not mobile friendly as it takes too long to load, unless I really need to read that certain website and have no other choice, but to wait to open with all images etc. Don`t allow it to happen to your website, make those people in the train life easier

  

Here is information taken from Wikipedia about QR Code:

A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is designed to be read by smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded may be text, a URL, or other data.
Created by Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994, the QR code is one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes. The QR code was designed to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. The technology has seen frequent use in Japan and South Korea; the United Kingdom is the seventh-largest national consumer of QR codes.

When we build your mobile website, you will also receive your own QR Code, which you can use as follows:

• The back (or front and back) of your business card.
• Your brochures and other marketing materials.
• The sides of trucks and trailers.
• Product tags and packaging
• Convention and event nametags
• Restaurant menus
• Event ticket stubs
• Point-of-sale receipts

First thing you want to do is to start with the most important things on your website. Remember that your mobile version is not the same as PC version, even though you would like to replicate everything available on your website.  Single out the features that have the most relevance in a mobile context. For example, restaurants can feature their menu or today`s prices information, other industries may go with something different according to their business model.

Graphics are also good, they make site looks more pleasant, but we shouldn`t make them priority as it can slow down the page loading time. When images are used, they must be resized for the smaller screen size. Another very important point is, do not use flash on mobile sites, even though your PC version have flash. As we know Apple devices are not flash friendly like iPhone, which is very popular. Even though majority of population owns other smartphones than iPhone, we shouldn`t ignore anybody. As a business owners it is always good to look behind your desktop. One of features we provide on Mobile Website is link that will start dialing for you, instead of a form fill out with your phone number.