The iPhone is easily the fastest selling mobile device around at the moment. Not only that but browsing on the iPhone has revolutionized browsing the web via mobile devices. With 6.9 million iPhones being sold in the last quarter alone, there is no doubt that it is highly possible that some of those eyes may find there way to your site via the iPhone. So is it time to start testing sites on the iPhone?
In September 2008 the iPhone’s browser share was at 0.32% according to Net Applications. It may not seem like that much of a share. But it’s safe to say, every iPhone owner has a desktop computer which they use to browse primarily however, when they’re out and about and want to check out your website, you’ll no doubt want them to be able to access that information. So even though the share isn’t huge, it is growing (it is a much higher share than Windows Mobile and its other competitors), and it is about providing your information on the go.
What’s great about the iPhone is it uses Safari as it’s browser and in my tests, if it works in Safari on your desktop it will usually work correctly on the iPhone. There is a few minor differences though, the main is the is not yet any Flash support. It is apparently in development, so hopefully we see it soon enough. I haven’t heard anything about it in a while though. Another problem is Safari on the iPhone will sometimes make your text bigger to be readable when zoomed out. This can sometimes mess with your design when you have designed it around a particular font-size to fit nicely where it is. The final problem is screen size. Most of the problems with the screen size Apple has already solved with the zoom feature. However that in itself can cause problems for sites that use things such as pop-overs, which can rely on accurate screen sizes for positioning, being zoomed in can play havoc with this.
The Verdict:
It’s time to start considering testing your sites in the iPhone, and perhaps if it’s a high traffic site even making an iPhone specific site designed specifically for iPhone browsing. The iPhone share in web browsing is growing and even though it’s not huge at the moment, it won’t be long before it gets close to 1%. The iPhone is worth taking notice of.
