Build mobile web_site

Making Leaders Successful Every Day
June 29, 2010
How To Build A Mobile Web Site
by Julie A. Ask
for Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

© 2010, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available
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For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals
Executive Summary
The browser-based mobile Web experience is more important than ever, with dramatic growth in
the usage of the mobile Internet — especially from smartphones — in the past 24 months. In 2009,
consumer brands built iPhone applications; they are now asking what’s next. The answer for many is
to improve the quality of their mobile Web site. The first step is developing a business strategy to guide
a vendor requirements document. Working through the mobile POST process forces brands to answer
strategic questions before making technology decisions and thinking about vendors. This will be an
iterative process, as requirements are right-sized to budgets. Once in place, consumer brands can select
one of five approaches to building or improving their mobile Web presence: outsourcing to a managed
service provider; licensing a mobile platform; leveraging existing partners, such as eCommerce
platforms; working with an agency; and building with in-house resources.
table of Contents
Five Choices For Building A Mobile Web Site
Strategic Decisions Must Drive Mobile Vendor
Decisions
recommendations
Decisions Should Flow From Your Business
Strategy, Not Vendor Offerings
Supplemental Material
NOTES & RESOURCES
Forrester interviewed 2ergo, Digby, dload,
iconmobile, Kony Solutions, Little Springs
Design, Mobiqa, Netbiscuits, Razorfish, Sapient,
The Hyperfactory, Usablenet, and VML.
Related Research Documents
“Case Study: Steve Madden Invests In Mobile
Fundamentals”
June 22, 2010
“The POST Method: A Systematic Approach To
Mobile Strategy”
April 9, 2009
June 29, 2010
Choosing An Approach To Meet Your Objectives Cost-Effectively
by Julie A. Ask
with J.P. Gownder, Vidya Drego, Brian Walker, Seth Fowler, and Laura Wiramihardja
2
6
9
10

© 2010, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction ProhibitedJune 29, 2010
2
Five Choices for building a mobile web site
Mobile data isn’t just about apps: The mobile browser-based Web is more important than ever.
Increasing adoption of smartphones with desktop-quality browsers, more advanced browsers on
nonsmartphone devices, and the broad availability of high-speed wireless networks has created a
high-quality mobile Internet experience that consumers like and will use.1
After languishing at just
3% to 4% for years, daily mobile Internet usage among US adult cell phone users grew from 7% at
the end of 2008 to 10% in mid-2009 and to 15% in mid-2010.2
Consumer brands looking to build a mobile Web site must choose among the five types of solutions
available to them (see Figure 1). They will narrow down their choices based on their budgets as well
as the type of Web experience that they want to deliver. There are pros and cons associated with
each approach (see Figure 2). Some of the companies that build mobile Web sites do not fit cleanly
into one category, but we placed them where they fit best.3
The five solutions are:
· Fully managed services. Fully managed services give companies the opportunity to outsource
their mobile Web development, hosting, and maintenance completely. Buyers who say that
they have no internal bandwidth typically choose this type of solution. Fully managed services
vendors primarily offer transcoding or content optimization services — they take existing Web
content and logic and translate it into defined wireframes and formats that fit a small screen size.
They offer device detection, content hosting, and content optimization. This type of solution
was especially popular before smartphones, with their more advanced browsers, gained such a
foothold in the US market. Vendors charge ongoing service fees, with some upfront professional
service fees for the initial setup. Buyers benefit from the turnkey nature of the solution.
· Licensed technology platforms. These platforms, also known as mobile enablement solutions,
are gaining substantial traction in the US. The business model involves licensing a technology
platform that offers device detection, content hosting, and content optimization. They offer
some analytics and integrate with Web analytics companies like Omniture and mobile ad
networks like AdMob and Millennial Media. In addition, they have Web-based development
tools that minimize the need for more technical development or coding expertise. Companies
can license these platforms and build their mobile Web sites in-house; agencies can also license
these platforms on behalf of clients. Vendors have traditionally charged licensing fees but may
also include a higher mix of professional services fees if they build at least the initial Web site.
The benefits here come from the advantages of scale and the ability to easily customize your Web
site.
· Existing solutions providers. Existing solutions providers — such as eCommerce platforms,
customer service solutions, and email service providers — either license mobile capabilities
from a third party and incorporate them into their solution or add elements of mobile to
existing solutions. Venda, for example, recently partnered with Digby to offer mobile to its

© 2010, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited June 29, 2010
3
existing base of more than 200 customers. RightNow Technologies is helping its clients format
content — FAQs and chat dialogues — for mobile devices. This is a small element of a much
larger infrastructure for many companies, but it helps mobilize content and functionality from
existing Web sites. Buyers benefit from tight integration when choosing these vendors.
· Agencies. Agencies offer end-to-end mobile Web site development, beginning with mobile
strategy in some cases and continuing on to concept creation, design, development, user
interface and site quality assessments, and maintenance. Buyers can choose between traditional
and mobile-focused agencies.4
Anything is possible with agencies. They will work with managed
service providers; license platforms on behalf of their clients or use an in-house version; or build
from a client’s existing infrastructure. Buyers receive potentially excellent experiences but at a
premium.
· In-house builds. Companies that build in-house may leverage all or just a part of the
approaches listed above, except for fully managed services. They may license a mobile platform
and use those tools to build their own site. They may hire an agency for user interface design
and then bring the build in-house. Companies that decide to build some or all of their mobile
Web site in-house do so for a couple of reasons. Some decide that “mobile competence” in its
broadest definition is of strategic importance, and they want that expertise to be exclusive
and on call. Hiring mobile expertise is difficult because it is scarce — companies building in-
house are developing their own. They view paying contractors as paying someone else to learn.
Relatively few companies we’ve surveyed are doing their own device detection, which can be
characterized as time-consuming but straightforward. In-house builds offer the most control for
those that can afford this approach.

4
Figure 1 The Five Categories Of Mobile Web Providers
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.57134
Fully managed services An outsourced approach offers Web site transcoding services and/or
other services that simplify or automate the creation of a mobileWeb
experience.
Licensed technology
platform
This is primarily a technology or development platform with Web-based
tools for simple mobile Web construction.
Existing solutions provider Existing eCommerce vendors or other solution providers build
capabilities and partner with a mobile platform to extend their services.
Agency Full-service agencies offer design, development, build,
quality testing, and maintenance.
In-house build Built in-house either entirely or in part. May leverage agencies or other
vendors for portions of the solution and experience.
Most mobile Web providers fall into one of five categories1-1
Each approach offers many vendor options1-2
Fully managed services
Licensed technology
platform
Existing solutions provider
Agency
In-house build

5
Figure 2 There Are Pros And Cons Associated With Each Approach
Managed services Licensed platform Existing vendor Agency In-house
Pros • Covers all devices,
including the long
tail and new
devices as added
• Relatively low
total cost of
ownership
• Quick
implementation
• Low impact on
internal IT
department
• Mobile expertise
• Optimizes content
for all devices,
including long tail
• Optimizes media
for small screen
• Web-based design
tools minimize
technical expertise
requirements
• Offers potential for
user inteface
customization
by combining
with an agency or
professional
services
• Offers ultimate
flexibility and
control along with
tight and
streamlined
integration into
existing and
planned
infrastructure
• Cost control in
fixed salaries,
outsourcing to
emerging markets
• Develops
in-house mobile
expertise —
viewed as a
competitive
advantage by
some
• Offers platform
for differentiation
Cons • Mostly a subset
of desktop
experience
• Less ability to
leverage unique
device features
• More standard
and text-based,
vertical user
interfaces
• Usability and QA
testing limited
• Tying experience
to any third-party
platform limits
pace of innovation
to third party
• Use of common
platform makes
differentiation
more difficult
• Proprietary
markup languages
• Lacks mobile
expertise and may
be ultimately
partnering or
outsourcing
(e.g., Venda with
Digby)
• Little
experience — few
projects versus a
few hundred —
unless it leverages
a partner’s
experience
• Potential to be
highest-cost
alternative,
depending on
scope
• Less mobile
experience unless
a dedicated
mobile agency
• Creates
dependency on
third party for
changes,
maintenance,
and additions
• Historically,
innovation
originates in small,
nimble companies
• Not lowest cost
• Expertise hard to
hire — often must
be developed
internally
• Decision-making
subject to internal
financial planning
and organizational
issues rather than
simple purchase
order
Typical
project
length
Four to eight
weeks
Eight to 12 weeks Driven by
approach used
by partner and
scope of project
Weeks to several
months
Ongoing, full-time
initiatives
• Offers deep
integration
with existing Web
infrastructure and
business solutions
• Knows client
organizations,
processes, and
personnel well,
given they are
existing partners
• Removes anxiety
of“we need to get
something done”
• Allows elements
of content or
services to be
mobilized
• Differentiates on
quality of
experience,
especially on more
sophisticated
devices
• Marketing
capabilities
• Full services from
strategy to
development to
robust QA testing
• Integrates with
existing business
solutions and Web
infrastructure

6
Strategic decisions Must drive mobile vendor decisions
Companies need a mobile strategy before they can begin to choose an approach to mobile Web
design. Too many companies are drawn into buying what a vendor is selling before they have a
mobile strategy in place. Forrester recommends that companies use its POST process to develop
a mobile strategy methodically.5
A number of strategic decisions must be made as part of the “S”
(strategy) or tactical planning portion of the process that will eventually guide the selection of a
vendor approach (see Figure 3). One of the outcomes of the POST methodology should be a vendor
requirements document that is based on a company’s needs, rather than what is possible. Getting
to this point will require an iterative process in which companies must come to a set of aligned
strategic decisions on each of several dimensions (see Figure 4). These include:
· Reach. The key question here is, “Should we have a tiered approach with experiences
customized to more sophisticated mobile phones or should we opt for a one-size-fits-all
approach?” Nearly one-quarter of US cell phone owners have a smartphone, but about half of all
mobile Web traffic is on smartphones.6
With their touchscreens, HTML5, and accelerometers,
smartphones offer the opportunity to create user experiences that take advantage of unique
handset features.
· Offering. Mobile is not simply about shrinking the desktop experience to a smaller screen
or removing rich media to create a text-based site easily navigated via a 12-digit key pad. The
purpose and resulting complexity of the site can vary greatly. At the lowest level of complexity,
mobile Web sites may simply be landing pages that support a mobile ad campaign. At the other
end of the spectrum are mobile commerce sites, which have deep integration into existing
commerce platforms, product catalogs, customer databases, content management systems, and
customer service solutions that operate in multiple regions and languages around the world.7
Mobile phones also offer unique features, such as cameras, user location, and accelerometers;
more advanced browsers with HTML5 can increasingly leverage these to create more contextual
and enhanced experiences. The more complex the offering, the higher the cost of the build (see
Figure 5).
· Investment. Many factors come into play when determining a budget for building a mobile
Web site. The desired site features, selected approach, organization, and mobile-readiness and
compatibility of existing infrastructure will have an impact on costs (see Figure 6).8
Timing
requirements and the availability of internal resources will also drive budget needs and affect the
choice of approach. If the needs requirements driven by your reach and offering decisions don’t
fit within available funding constraints, you must revisit them as part of an iterative process
until you reach a set of aligned decisions.
· Value chain. Each company must decide how important mobile expertise is. One of the top
reasons that companies give for spending on mobile marketing applications is learning. Mobile
expertise is hard to hire even in 2010, as the number of open job postings shows. In-house
expertise provides more control over innovation and costs in the long term.

7
Figure 3 Strategic Decisions Must Drive Mobile Vendor Decisions
People
Review the Mobile Technographics® Profile of your target audience.
Objectives
Decide on your goals.
Strategy
Determine your approach to meet your objectives.
Technology
Choose the technologies that will enable you to implement your strategy.
Mobile strategy development process
Reach Value chain
Offering Investment
• What do we want to mobilize?
• Level of integration?
• Use of unique device features?
• Geographies? Languages?
• What percentage of our
audience do we want to reach?
• Should we have a two-tiered
approach that customizes the
experience for more
sophisticated mobile devices?
• Do we need a vendor that can
provide applications in
addition to mobile Web sites?
• Is mobile expertise a core
competency that we need?
• How important is mobile
versus company or industry
expertise?
• How much can we afford to
spend? How much do we need
to spend?
• How much internal bandwidth
do we have?
• What is our timing outlook?
Offering/
experience
Cost
Figure 4 Strategic Planning Will Be An Iterative Process Until You Find The Right Balance

8
Figure 5 Site Complexity Further Narrows Your Vendor Options
Simple campaign
landing pages as
part of mobile
marketing
campaign project
Simple
site builds
at smaller
agencies
Marketing
applications or
other simple sites
with few unique
experiences
Back-end
integration as
well as use of
device features
Complex sites with
custom UIs leveraging
many unique handset
features, deep integration
into background, and
complex Web-level
services
Some free tools
available for
simple projects
Typical
sites
Complex sites
with substantial
traﬃc
Possible, but
not typical
Simple sites with
minimal
professional
services
Simple- to
medium-
complexity
sites with
upfront setup
features
Complex sites;
includes
setup plus
ongoing
hosting/
maintenance
Possible, but
not typical
$10K–$35K $35K–$75K $100K–$200K $200K–$500K $500K–$1M $1M–$3M
Agency
Licensed
platform
Managed
platform
service
Choices will be limited by budget and site features5-1
Sitecomplexity
Internalresourcesrequired
$10K–$35K $35K–$75K $100K–$200K $200K–$500K $500K–$1M $1M–$3M
Managed
services
Platform
Agency
High
Typical
Simple
Once you’ve made these strategic decisions, vendor selection will be easier5-2

9
Figure 6 Your Strategy Will Affect The Amount You Need To Spend
Element Cost drivers
Site features
Approach
Organization
Infrastructure
• Quality of user interface
• Geography and languages supported
• Media, content, and services on site
• Use of unique device features
• Vendor approach
• Tiered versus single-solution approach
• Level of mobile readiness — is there a strategy in place?
• Mobile IQ of organization
• Clear and well-understood leadership
• Mobile readiness of content (e.g., media)
• Customer databases
• Product information (e.g., inventory, catalogs)
• Existing eCommerce platform
• Analytics solutions
• Content management systems
• Etc.
Rec o mme n d at i o n s
Decisions should flow from your business strategy, not vendor offerings
Too many companies base their mobile Web requirements on vendor offerings rather than their
unique business needs and resulting mobile strategies. Design approaches are available across
a range of budgets and timing needs, as well as the availability of internal expertise. In general,
there is no single best approach — there is only the best approach for you. Once you have
selected an approach and are evaluating vendors, be sure to:
· Navigate between single-source and best-of-breed solutions. All vendors offer more
than Web site services. Each vendor interviewed for this report had the ability to design,
develop, and distribute mobile applications, and most offered mobile marketing services
ranging from platform services to campaign development and implementation. Their
approaches to building applications paralleled that of mobile Web sites. Managed services
and platforms will optimize basic content for any device, while agencies focus on custom
development for smartphones as well as creating solutions for the long tail of devices.
Choosing a single vendor for all of your mobile Internet needs will make efficient use of your
resources by simplifying the sourcing and development processes. However, you may need
to compromise by forgoing best-of-breed development on any one platform.

10
· Understand that the available offerings remain immature. No vendor offers company,
industry, and mobile expertise. Those vendors with mobile expertise have likely worked
across many industries, but they will not know your company or existing infrastructure and
processes well. Your existing partners — whether an agency or an eCommerce platform —
will know your company well but will typically have less mobile expertise. Building mobile
services will require patience and working with your partner to fill in the knowledge gaps.
Even building in-house means developing expertise — and that takes time.
· Make a conscious choice between innovation and risk. The most innovative mobile
vendors may be smaller than your traditional agency or eCommerce platform partners.
Along with that smaller size comes a degree of risk — working with low-scale suppliers can
create uncertainty about your project. Information on smaller suppliers’financial stability
or performance is not available in public documents. Credibility and experience will be
found in your trust of a few key individuals as well as in their portfolio of work. If your goal
is innovation and deep mobile expertise, you may find it in your larger, well-known partners,
but be prepared to work with smaller, lesser-known entities that will grow and mature in
their experiences with you.
Supplemental MATERIAL
Companies Interviewed For This Document
2ergo
Digby
dload
iconmobile
Kony Solutions
Little Springs Design
Mobiqa
Netbiscuits
Razorfish
Sapient
The Hyperfactory
Usablenet
VML
Endnotes
1
Adoption of smartphones by US mobile phone owners grew from 11% at the end of 2008 to 17% at the end
of 2009. See the January 14, 2010, “2009: The Year Of High-End Phones” report.
2
In six months, between year-end 2008 and mid-year 2009, daily use of the mobile Web went from 7% to
10%. The year before, year-end 2007 to year-end 2008, saw daily use grow from 4% to 7%. That is to say,
in six months the frequency of use of the mobile Web jumped more than the 12 months previous. Recent
advances in handsets, networks, and offerings have rapidly accelerated the frequency with which cell phone
users access the Web. This data is taken from a forthcoming Forrester report, “Making The Case For The
Mobile Internet.”

11
3
Managed service providers and technology platforms also offer professional services. Agencies are licensing
third-party platforms to build mobile Web sites for their clients. Some agency projects entail user interface
(UI) design while the development work goes in-house. Some agencies have developed their own platforms.
Moreover, everyone’s business mix is evolving. More than one platform provider, for example, revealed that
they now derive the majority of their revenues from professional service fees, not licensing fees.
4
Agencies fall into two categories — traditional and those with a mobile focus. Traditional agencies may have
built a company’s existing Web site in addition to offering all of the services involved with marketing, such
as creative and media placement. Mobile agencies will have less company or Web experience but will have
deeper mobile expertise. Many offer a range of services — from end-to-end marketing campaign delivery
through to designing and building mobile applications and Web sites. Some, such as The Hyperfactory, have
their own proprietary platform as well.
5
POST is a methodology that Forrester has developed to assist companies with strategies that lead to the
services and technology solutions most appropriate for their target audience. See the April 9, 2009, “The
POST Method: A Systematic Approach To Mobile Strategy” report.
6
Among those individuals surveyed in Forrester’s North American Technographics® Online Benchmark
Survey, Q2 2010 (US), 47% of US online adults with smartphones browse daily versus only 15% overall. In
AdMob’s April 2010 report, which is based on 18.0 billion ad requests worldwide, 45% of its requests came
from smartphones. In the US in April 2010, AdMob received 7.5 billion requests, 49% of which were from
smartphones. Our interviews revealed that some companies are now taking a multitiered approach that
combines agency or in-house builds for smartphone platforms with a managed service for the longer tail
of handsets. Agencies reported that custom Webkit development was growing quickly, while the expected
increased use and adoption of HTML5 would change how they build going forward. These reported trends
from across agencies supports their claim to be doing an increasing amount of mobile Web development.
Source: AdMob (http://metrics.admob.com).
7
Operating in different countries around the world is not simply an exercise in language translation.
Countries and regions have unique wireless networks, regulations, policies, and handsets that require local
knowledge. The number of handsets grows with the number of countries. In some countries, consumers pay
with credit cards; in others, they pay through the carriers. Both content and taskflow preferences will vary
by country.
8
Whether scraped from an existing Web site or built from the ground up, mobile Web sites are not
standalone collections of code. They rely on the same content management systems and eCommerce
platforms as Web sites. There are additional requirements. Content, for example, must be appropriate for a
small screen. Images must fit small screens, while text must be proportionally larger than on a site designed
for a PC. Last, finding the nearest store with a 3G 64 GB iPad is a great use of mobile, but the service must
first have access to accurate inventory that is tagged with latitude and longitude coordinates.

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