I’m pretty sure that I’m the only one in the office who doesn’t have a smartphone. I remember going to lunch with three of my coworkers who spent at least a quarter of the time on their iPhones doing one thing or another (most of this was spent figuring out whether ordering their meal via the restaurant’s app was faster than standing in line). I want to say that I’m content with my Tracfone at the moment, since I don’t talk on the phone a lot, but the monthly bill for an iPhone is pretty steep. The reality is, whether I like it or not, smartphones are here to stay, and they’re also becoming pocket-sized internet browsers.
You can’t go anywhere anymore without seeing someone on a cellphone, whether talking on it or playing with it (texting, games, etc.). At the mall, at church, while driving (don’t get me started on that one).… You can do almost anything with them: take pictures, play games, send messages, IM, use it as a GPS, tweet, type with a QWERTY keyboard, or make coffee. They’re part of life for most people, and some people probably can’t live without them (or at least they think they can’t). Studies have shown that more people have cellphones than have desktop computers. Therefore, more people potentially could be accessing the internet from their cellphones than from their desktop computer. This report predicts that there will be one billion mobile web users by 2010, perhaps surpassing PC web access.
Cellphones are evolving to be more and more like mini computers. Perhaps at the height of mobile evolution (mobilution?) is the iPhone (I’m somewhat biased here as a Mac person). Almost any webpage will appear the same as on a desktop computer browser without any extra effort on the web developer’s part. From here on down, the web developer will have to put some effort into making their website “mobile-ready” for a variety of different mobiles and their respective web browsers.
I’ve been reading the book Mobile Web Design by design god Cameron Moll to learn more about mobile web design. Cameron Moll picks from several options on presenting to your mobile audience and recommends to either do nothing or create a separate mobile version of your website. Doing nothing may be okay for smartphones, but simpler handsets may render your website unusable.
I personally plan to combine Moll’s suggested “mobile-optimized content” with graceful degradation in the form of stylesheets. 1) Design a version of your website for smartphones that strips out a lot of extra stuff and makes the content viewable on the phone’s screen without zooming (like this example or this one) and easily navigated by one or two fingers or the limited keypad. Visual cues like buttons help as well. 2) For simpler handsets, use a stylesheet to take that mobile version and strip out just about everything but the bare bones, focusing on the most crucial information (like Cameron Moll’s mobile site here). Some users have to pay by the kilobyte, so this makes your website even more friendly. This direction will utilize graceful degradation, which uses techniques to make the website still usable in contexts that may not support every feature and design element.
If you’re a web designer/developer considering making your website mobile friendly, Smashing Magazine has a very detailed article you can read detailing best practices and challenges. If you want a mobile version of your website, you can call us. 
All that being said, look for the mobile version of Worthwhile in the near future.
