Should AP News ‘Going Mobile’ Actually Be News?
by Ewan Spence
Should it be news when a popular website launches a ‘mobile’ version of their site? I ask this as a flurry of sites pick up the press release from Associated Press that around 100 of their member newspapers will ‘make available’ stories on a website for the iPhone and other mobile devices.
Come on! This is the 21st century, the principle of web design where content is divorced from layout has been entrenched for years, there shouldn’t need to be a big song and dance that a web service is ‘now available’ for a certain browser. We should be in a position where everything just works, the browser is detected as the site loads, and the appropriate style sheet is selected (or ajax code delivered, or flash disabled as required, etc, etc, etc).
But we’re not, and yes I do live in the real world, and these announcements are a good thing. Because it means that the usage of mobile browsers is leaving the realms of the geekerati, and moving into the real world. Which is exactly what should be happening.
And even though I live in the real world, and think that ‘iPhone and other mobile devices’ does a huge disservice to the hundreds of other mobile browsers out there - and yet again elevates the iPhone into an interesting position where the perception of it being a game changer actually makes it a game changer.
