What prompted me to write this article is that I just purchased a Asus MeMo tablet for my wife and I began to research the mobile world and what is going on behind the scenes. I live in an area in the USA with NO cell phone service, so I've never owned a smart phone and have been ignorant to the entire mobile industry, boy my eyes were opened in a hurry! I thought I was up to date on Mobile...nothing could be further from the truth.
Are You Ready For Mobile?If you're like me, you spend many hours in front of your desktop or laptop working on your AbanteCart Web Store and
we are becoming dinosaurs! I mean that literally ... the Internet is quickly moving away from the old standard and shifting to mobile platforms faster then I can even keep up with it.
Browsers Are ChangingBy that title, I don't mean the browser you're currently using, no matter what it is. Do you know what Browser is most recommend for the Android Jellybean 4.2 OS? You'd never guess in a million years unless you did some research.
1.
Dolphin! I've never heard of it before today!
2. One of the oldest browsers in existence,
OPERA! 3.
Chrome - Important note about this further down.
4.
FireFox - Another note about FF
5. Another browser I've never heard of before today,
ONE Browser, formally iBrowser (never heard of that either!)
So no matter how much you love your FF or Chrome you'd better prepare yourself to change ... or you risk being left behind.
Flash Player is DeadWe all thought Adobe's beloved FlashPlayer was here to stay and I personally ridiculed Apple for never switching to Flash. Well, guess what?
Android in now dropping flash support as well! All new Android products are shipping
without flash installed. It can still be installed separately, but it leaves a security hole in your mobile device as Jellybean will not update it.
>> Android is made by Google and so is Chrome. Here is that important note I spoke about earlier, Chrome for Android has stopped supporting Flash as well!
>>FireFox note - FireFox for Android still uses a Flash plug-in, but it crashes consistently and is sure to move it further down the popularity list.
Why abandon Flash? Because, HTML5 is replacing the old Adobe Flash format and it simply isn't needed any further. FireFox has not been very quick on the uptake of HTML5 and even HTML5 Videos crash the FireFox version on Android. So Flash is dead, Long Live Flash...
Conclusions1. Begin thinking mobile (responsive) in every single thing you do for your web store. AbanteCart has the lead on HTML5 and will soon explode onto the market as the leading shopping cart solution, I have no doubt about that. The others will be playing catch-up.
2. Get rid of those big graphics, they're not mobile compatible. Keep your images to 250 pixels or less in size. That will allow them to accommodate a smart phone resolution. I recently saw a beautiful adaptation of AbanteCart, with a large graphic in the header, very attractive ... but it won't play on mobile!
3. As much as many of you love the banner slider - I know I do -
stop using it. (Sorry AbanteCart
). It isn't mobile compatible either in it's current form. You can modify it and remove the large 600px wide graphics and replace them with smaller ones, but it's just easier to turn it off.
4. Those slide shows everyone is crazy about, forget about them too ... Why? Because, they use images that are
TOO BIG FOR MOBILE!5. Get proficient in HTML5 and CSS3 .. it will save your business.
Folks, the Internet is changing and I include myself in this when I say I wish it would stay the way it is. I'm comfortable with it now and I don't want to change, but we must change or we'll be left behind!
