Companies urged to stake a claim on the mobile web

Businesses should closely monitor the mobile internet uptake of their target audience

Organisations without a mobile internet strategy must reassess their plans in order to capitalise on the growing number of users accessing the web with a mobile device.

Analyst firm Forrester Research said in a new report, entitled Why Mobile's Time Has Come, that an unprecedented confluence of factors in the mobile space means that companies must have a presence.

"Mobile is now too important for companies to ignore. Firms must reassess their mobile strategies now, and decide on when, not if, they should launch new mobile products and services," said report author Ian Fogg.

"Failure to pick the right approach now will lead to others seizing control of the new landscape that extends to every minute of consumers' lives 24x7."

The report highlighted growth drivers such as widespread 3G and HSDPA coverage, growing numbers of handsets with large touch screens offering a "step change in quality" for users, and flat rate all-you-can-eat tariffs from operators.

Forrester interviewed around 20,000 consumers across western Europe, and found that nearly a quarter of those from the UK use the mobile internet, compared to an average of 13 per cent across the region.

The report points to efforts from web giants Amazon, Yahoo and eBay which, along with Microsoft, have invested significant sums over the past few years in becoming leading brands in the mobile space.

Forrester said that companies will need to closely monitor the mobile internet uptake of their target audience, and define clear objectives if they are to succeed. The report also warned organisations not to think of the mobile internet as an extension of the fixed internet, and to think of any new technology as a means to an end rather than an end in itself.

"Firms must evaluate their audience, decide on objectives, design a strategy and its timing, and only then select a technology approach," the report concluded. "Picking the technology first will risk resulting in a great solution that only a handful of people will be able to use."