W3C Mobile Web Initiative
Technology, Standards and Internationalization Conference
6 - 7 May, Delhi
Latest Figures
Opera reports that in the 12 months to March 2010 in India:
- Page-view growth on mobile was 260%
- Each user viewed an average of 359 pages
- Average data transfer per user was 7 Mb
- Top 10 devices were all Nokia (5130 XpressMusic) was top)
In terms of mobile Web traffic that puts India next to US
SMS Compared with the Web on Mobile
- Cost per character is lower on the Web
- Web pages/services more discoverable (through search)
- Web support for graphics helps to overcome some illiteracy issues
- Web supports greater variety of character sets
- It's generally easier to develop for the Web platform
Mobile Web Initiative
Activities:
- Working Groups
- Outreach
- Training
- Tool development
Latter 3 funded by revenue sources rather than core funds.
Mobile Web Best Practices
The Best Practices are available as a set of handy reminders
Some examples of best practice on mobile:
- No tables for layout
- Use, but do not rely on, advanced CSS, JavaScript etc. (progresive enhancement)
- Use a single column layout
Mobile Web Best Practices
The Best Practices are available as a set of handy reminders
Some examples of best practice on mobile:
- No tables for layout
- Use, but do not rely on, advanced CSS, JavaScript etc. (progresive enhancement)
- Use a single column layout
mobileOK Checker
Results include a lot of detailed feedback for developers.
Best Practice in Practice
Best Practice in Practice
Relationship with Accessibility
There is a close relationship between designing for the mobile Web and making Web content Accessible
Other Mobile-related Work at W3C
- Geolocation
- Device APIs
- Web Applications (widgets)
Geolocation API
Technically at Last Call Working Draft, but already implemented in
- Android
- iPhone
- Firefox 3.5+ (we're now on 3.6.3)
And used by:
- Google Maps and Google Local
- Flickr
- Travelocity iPhone
- Ask Laila
- and more…
Live Demo
Device APIs
- access to the compass and accelerometer
- the messaging system for point and click sending of SMS, MMS etc.
- system information (battery state, network type & availability etc.)
- the gallery and more!
APIs Make Development Easy
getCurrentPosition()
Hence forthcoming W3C Workshops on
Widgets (Web Apps)
- HTML (incl. HTML 5)
- CSS
- JavaScript
- An XML Config file
- An Icon for the Application
- Delivered as a zip file (with the extension changed from .zip to .wgt)
- Can be Digitally Signed
Widget Spec is at Candidate Recommendation as of December 2009.
What Can Others Do?
These are the recommendations of the Mobile Web for Social Development WG's Roadmap (this is the WG that began with the workshop in Bangalore, in December 2006).
- Network operators
- Extend low cost data services, low bandwidth is sufficient
- Implement Unicode for SMS
- Handset manufacturers
- Provide GPRS, J2ME and/or browser
- Allow installation of new character sets
- Include text2speech engine (see W3C Workshop on Conversational Applications 18 - 19 June, New Jersey)
What Can Others Do?
- Public authorities
- Use mobile platform for ICT services
- Policies to ease work of entrepreneurs
- Enforce universal availability of low-cost minimal data service
- Service developers
- Share, cooperate and collaborate to avoid redevelopment
- Use open data formats
The Web is a Platform
- Based on Royalty-Free open standards
The Web is a Platform
- Based on Royalty-Free open standards
- Flexible, powerful, ubiquitous
The Web is a Platform
- Based on Royalty-Free open standards
- Flexible, powerful, ubiquitous
- Right for mobile
The Web is a Platform
- Based on Royalty-Free open standards
- Flexible, powerful, ubiquitous
- Right for mobile
- Right for India
The Web is a Platform
- Based on Royalty-Free open standards
- Flexible, powerful, ubiquitous
- Right for mobile
- Right for India
