Google's results this week showed that it has been able to successfully capture significant revenue with its focus on advertising tools. While this just means that yet more industries will end up sending all their revenue to google through more focus on advertising, it does also mean that competition to be seen is going to increase even on mobile. I have seen 3 interesting pieces recently on the danger of going mobile first for any new startup:
1. Semil Shah on techcrunch argued for a few types of Startups that should not focus on mobile first:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/20/rethinking-the-seductiveness-of-mobile-first/
She pointed out business customers as a specific market that should not be attacked with Mobile first.
2. Peter Thiel on Pando Daily also mentioned the risk of competing in the app market, where he said he saw a lot of competition and little payoff.
3. A recorded conversation between the founders of Warby Parker, Thrillist, One Kings Lane and showed them discussing sales conversion, and they ranked it first: Tablet, Second: Desktop, third: app, and 4th mobile.
I think all this points to a slight sloppiness in how we talk about the interfaces that we use to access the web. There is a clear difference between an app and a mobile enabled website, but with responsive design now, there is no difference between a site that will be shown on any of the mobile devices through to tablets. I will be interested in the changes that happen in design when we start talking about optimizing for any size screen, as opposed to optimizing for mobile or desktop.
1. Semil Shah on techcrunch argued for a few types of Startups that should not focus on mobile first:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/20/rethinking-the-seductiveness-of-mobile-first/
She pointed out business customers as a specific market that should not be attacked with Mobile first.
2. Peter Thiel on Pando Daily also mentioned the risk of competing in the app market, where he said he saw a lot of competition and little payoff.
3. A recorded conversation between the founders of Warby Parker, Thrillist, One Kings Lane and showed them discussing sales conversion, and they ranked it first: Tablet, Second: Desktop, third: app, and 4th mobile.
I think all this points to a slight sloppiness in how we talk about the interfaces that we use to access the web. There is a clear difference between an app and a mobile enabled website, but with responsive design now, there is no difference between a site that will be shown on any of the mobile devices through to tablets. I will be interested in the changes that happen in design when we start talking about optimizing for any size screen, as opposed to optimizing for mobile or desktop.
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