Question

Topic: Customer Behavior

Web Browsing On Handhelds

Posted by Anonymous on 4/12/2007 at 9:18 AM ET 250 Points
Greetings.

I am curious if anyone has a good idea on what percent of handheld users, Blackberry, Palm, etc., actual use the web browser on their device. If you don't have any aggregate numbers, I would be curious how many of you folks browse on your handhelds. My firm is currently developing a remote asset management website and my boss thinks it needs to be handheld friendly, I disagree. Thoughts?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 4/12/2007 at 11:52 AM Author
    Let me be more clear, by asset, I did not mean porfolio management. The asset is a capital piece of equipment.

    Lgore, do you access the web on your handheld?
  • Posted by Tracey on 4/12/2007 at 12:16 PM Member
    I think that the statistic is about 25% in the U.S. (but higher in Europe & Asia and growing rapidly in the U.S.), but I'm not totally sure. You could check ctia.org -- I'm pretty sure they will have that statistic because I think I read it recently in one of their daily e-newsletters. If they don't have it, try fiercewireless.com or rcrnews.com.

    What kind of customers do you have? Are they facilities managers? It seems like a really good feature, because those guys are often not at their desks....
  • Posted on 4/12/2007 at 12:22 PM Author
    We supply to the railroad industry. Our customers do spend a lot of time outside of the office and do need to still be connected. However, my thought is that the functionality of web browsing on handhelds is so limited that very few people do it with any regularity. For example, if I need to web browse and I am away from my desk, I plug my laptop into my phone.

    Anyone else think 25% sounds really high?
  • Posted by Tracey on 4/12/2007 at 12:53 PM Member
    Come to think of it, I may have read that statistic in Direct magazine, btw. (Oh, and I meant 25% of the people that already have the capability on their handheld device - but yeah, I could be wrong on the number).
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 4/12/2007 at 7:06 PM Accepted
    Joe

    I think 25% sounds ridiculously high.

    Almost everyone I deal with has web functionality on their cell phone. Almost nobody uses it. Many use e-mail on the phone, but not browsing.

    With various 3G or GSM and other wireless capabilities built into or available as plug-in accessories for notebook computers, most seem to prefer that option. Even in remote areas, if you can get a phone signal, you can access the web via a 3G/GSM plug in module. e.g. like this one

    I think you need to speak with prospective buyers for the asset management system. I would imagine that some might think mobile accessibility is a must, while for other's it's irrelevant.

    Survey potential buyers and see how they think they would use such a system.

    That will give you far more to base your development plans on that your bosses gut feel. And it's far more important to know, than simple industry averages for access the web via hand-held devices. Those statistcs will include a whole slew of consumer use, when you're only interested in the B2B niche that represents prospective users of your system

    Your bosses gut feel issues BTW, need to be handled sensitively. Survey data - providing it is VALID - is a good way to counter possibly erroneous gut feel issues.

    Especially when it's your bosses gut that you're talking about.

    Hope that helps.

    ChrisB

  • Posted by Harry Hallman on 4/13/2007 at 8:27 AM Member
    Joe you should look into Shudan Design Group https://www.siteminis.com. They have built a technology that will convert your current site to be friendly for handheld devices. Pretty cool. the contact name I have there is Julie Levy. The president is a lady named Marci Troutman.

    They may also have some of the info you are looking for.
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