Mobile Website design, compared with all the standard marketing alternatives, has now reached this preeminent position.

• >   Yet, Few companies have leveraged this growing opportunity to leave their competitors behind.

This isn’t new-news, because marketers have been reporting the rapid rise of mobile device Internet search for years. However, we are now, in 2013, at the tipping point when mobile device searches are going to surpass the number of desktop searches.

What Research Shows for Mobile Website

The research firm Media Post Publications Gartner (http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/120590/#axzz2Rb6H1t81) reports that the most common devices to access the web will be mobile in the very near future. Here are their statistics:

2013 browser-equipped enhanced phones will have 1.82 billion units, leaving PC behind at 1.78 billion. Here is the problem: many sites don’t function well in mobile browsers. This is what a business should consider:

• >  This is the ideal time to create an edge over your competitors.
• >  Consumers using their phones are more likely to buy.
• >  Having a mobile website design can bring customers from their mobile location directly to your business.

Here is a recent experience I had that you may be able to relate to: I was looking for a Starbucks close to my new job, to get coffee for my boss and I. What did I do? I used my phone to find the nearest location.  Starbucks made this easy because their site was accessible from my smartphone. I quickly located a Starbucks location. One click and I had a map with my location and all the Starbucks stores that were close to me, helping me to find the one that was closest to my new office – so I could be confident that the coffee would still be hot when I arrived.

No surprise that a market-savvy company like Starbucks has a mobile site especially designed for mobile users. Our suggestion is that like Starbucks, your business, too, should have a mobile-friendly site for your current and potential customers.  There are different ways you can go about designing for mobile. In the upcoming post I will be discussing the difference between responsive design and a dedicated mobile website.