BlackBerry Curve 8520 Browser

BlackBerry Curve 8520 Browser

The use of mobile devices for accessing the internet has increased, certainly more in recent years thanks to developments such as Apple’s iPhone, lower data costs and growth of social media. Even before recent development the use of mobile devices to access the internet increased threefold during 2006 to 16% of users (Point Topic 2007).

In low-income groups research shows that there is a higher likelihood of use of mobile devices instead of fixed line telephony services, with affordability being the prohibiting factor in addition to availability of pre-pay packages. With modern drivers such as social media it is a fair assumption that use of mobile devices for web interaction among low-income groups may be larger than use of mobile devices among higher-income groups. Indeed, social network websites deploy mobile versions on a wide range of devices and mobile operators such as Hutchison’s “Three” use social network drivers as a selling point for retail of new devices that include social network services pre-installed.  comScore research has shown that use of mobile devices for the web doubled in 2009 to 63.2 million global users, 35% of whom access the web on a mobile on a daily basis.

Higher-income groups will use mobile devices in addition to PC/Desktop access – for instance when on the road. However, in low-income groups there is a likelihood that mobile devices will form the primary means of access to web services.

Any web applications, especially Government services, should therefore bear in mind mobile access. This is easy when the service is simple information-based offerings, but when interactive services are offered, such as tax credits and DVLA services, there is a tendency to deploy advanced functionality through technologies like JavaScript. However, the ability for mobile devices to run JavaScript is still sporadic with the following browsers being able to support these advanced techniques:

  • Opera Mobile (>= 8.x, not Opera Mini)
  • Internet Explorer Mobile (WM 5.0/2003)
  • S60 3rd edition (WebKit/KHTML core)
  • Minimo (Gecko-based)
  • OpenWave (>=Mercury)
  • NetFront (>=3.4)
  • Safari Mobile (iPhone)

Most of those browsers are found in smartphones, which may be too expensive for low-income groups. Though cheaper mobile phones still have the ability to access the internet the extra resources needed to support heavy scripting might be lacking in favour of achieving a marketable price point.

In summary, services cannot be wholly dependent on a JavaScript function that does not degrade for mobile users as these users may include some of the very people that Government needs to reach the most.

UPDATE 12/11/2009: A BBC News article has covered a recent exercise in testing mobile capacity in the event of landline failure. This type of situation further emphasises the need for greater consideration to mobile access to web services, especially in Government and political sectors. The report also brings forward data to show uptake of 3G dongles, which notoriously suffer lower network speeds. Indeed, Ofcom has ordered providers to make improvements. Are the days of bloated blogs and clunky e-Government interfaces over?

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