A couple for years ago, I registered my eCommerce domains for .mobi with an eye for the future. I never did anything with those domains and wonder if it pays to keep them.

My thinking was that I should design versions of my regular websites for mobile phones. But now that smart phones are gaining their share of the market, I am not sure if separate websites are needed for that purpose. Can smart phones easily navigate a regular website?

Or, should I design separate websites for easy navigation with those devices? I hope I do not have to design one for regular cell phones and another for smart phones.

Personally, I am not into gadgets. I sit in front of a 24" monitor all day long.

Now with the iPhone and Nexus One market, designing using HTML 5 is the best option!

Remember when we use to design WAP pages? That's all past and now to be seen in iPhones a good knowledge of HTML 5 is a MUST!

Now with the iPhone and Nexus One market, designing using HTML 5 is the best option!

Remember when we use to design WAP pages? That's all past and now to be seen in iPhones a good knowledge of HTML 5 is a MUST!

How is HTML 5 compatible with previous versions of browsers?

I am not into small handheld gadgets. Is it necessary to develop one site for use in PC browsers an another for cell phones and smart phones?

Basic html5 will work in the webkit browsers (firefox, safari, chrome, opera, etc.) It has very limited, if any support in IE 8 and below. There are things you can use like html5shiv (js library) that will give you some of the functionality like video/audio embedding. There are a bunch of little things that are different from browser to browser (i.e different audio/video formats for safari vs firefox). Take a look at http://net.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/html-css-techniques/ for a good overview of what's supported and what's not currently.

The main reasons you would code a site for a handheld device vs a PC is for speed and layout. Just the same as you would want to take advantage of extra space of a wider screen (liquid layouts). With the speeds of 3g and upcoming 4g wireless networks, this is slowly becoming a thing of the past; however, you may still want things to look differently on a hand-held device than on the PC for many reasons, mostly efficient use of space.

Hope some of that helps! :)

So are webmasters creating one site for PC's and another for hand-held gadgets? If so, do they use two different domains or the same domain (using browser detection)? Is there any special reason someone should use a .mobi domain?

Can anyone give me he link to a well-designed mobile site?

HTML5 shouldn't even be a part of this discussion right now. He is asking about designing a version of his website for smartphones.

The answer to your question is that most smartphones can browse regular websites fairly easily. A mobile version would simply be an added perk for mobile users that allows them to load and navigate with greater ease.

For some websites that have a large visitor base from mobile devices, having a mobile version is a must. Maybe look at your visitor stats to determine whether you need it or not.

I hope I do not have to design one for regular cell phones and another for smart phones.
If this is the case, you definitely do NOT want to use HTML5. Stick with standard HTML for the greatest amount of compatibility. There are free mobile site templates out there if you just do a google search.Take a loot to see how other people have built them; it is not a whole lot different than building a regular site. The biggest thing to take into consideration is the design/layout itself

webhoststudent,

Thanks for this. You are right that this information is more of what I was after.

Here are my stats:

Rank Browser
1 Other 42.2%
2 IE 25.3%
3 Mozilla Firefox 23.7%
4 Safari 7.8%
5 Gecko-based 0.6%
6 Opera 0.3%
7 Netscape 0.1%
8 Konqueror 0.0

The problem is, my stats don't show what "other" represents. If those are mobile phones, I am in trouble.

I guess I will have to install webstates that detect mobile browsers.

I was thinkin too of making my store for mobiles

What stats program are you using? "Other" is simply not accurate enough... You may want to try out a couple other stats programs - Awstats,or maybe even google analytics?

IMO everyone still uses .com no matter what device they are coming from. With a good developer you can completely change your site based on the device that's being used to visit the site (like iPhone or BlackBerry). I don't think .mobi will catch on. Just look at .tv it never really caught on.

Why re-brand your product/service for a different domain is the question.

HTML 5 is is draft specification, it's not even finalized yet and some tags don't work properly like <video> due to different codecs being used between browsers.

Webstudent: I am using SmartStats by SmarterTools. There is a file in which you can add browsers and platforms. My problem is that I would not know what to add. Here is a sample of part of the file:

<Browser Expression="Firefox/2" Browser="Firefox" BrowserVersion="2" Order="5" />
<Browser Expression="Firefox/3" Browser="Firefox" BrowserVersion="3" Order="5" />
<Browser Expression="Firefox" Browser="Firefox" BrowserVersion="" Order="6" />
<Browser Expression="Chrome/5" Browser="Google Chrome" BrowserVersion="5" Order="3" />
<Browser Expression="Chrome/4" Browser="Google Chrome" BrowserVersion="4" Order="3" />


<Platform Expression="Windows CE" Platform="Win" PlatformVersion="CE" Order="2" PlatformType="MobilePhone" />
<Platform Expression="OS X" Platform="Mac" PlatformVersion="OS X" Order="3" />
<Platform Expression="iPhone OS 3_" Platform="iPhone" PlatformVersion="OS 3" Order="1" PlatformType="MobilePhone" />
<Platform Expression="iPhone OS 2_" Platform="iPhone" PlatformVersion="OS 2" Order="1" PlatformType="MobilePhone" />
<Platform Expression="iPhone" Platform="iPhone" PlatformVersion="" Order="2" PlatformType="MobilePhone" />
<Platform Expression="Mac OS X 10_5" Platform="Mac" PlatformVersion="OS 10.5" Order="2" />
<Platform Expression="Windows NT 5.2" Platform="Win" PlatformVersion="2003" Order="1" />
<Platform Expression="Windows XP" Platform="Win" PlatformVersion="XP" Order="1" />

BTW, I only got two visits from iPhones in the last week.

There are so many smartphones available at mobile store. You can buy used mobile phones and contact the sellers about their specifications in details that would not cause you any problem, I guess.

Definitely use the same domain for both so you don't dilute your backlinks and mess up your SEO

Now even came to iPhone and android phone. So why not you just create another section breakdown to categories those of it. So that customers easy to search for it.

I think that there is no need to design a site specifically for mobile phones. For years, there are mobile phones that supports Web standards so that they are not needed wap.
Truthfully, the navigation is a bit difficult due to the small screen, but nothing that could not be solved in a few clicks.
However, if you have high traffic from the mobile phone, you can adjust the most relevant information to users for quick search.