"Brandon McGee, Industry Insider, Mobile Banking Guru...He is not only the real deal, a genuine industry insider, but also knows exactly what's on the minds of financial service pros as they contemplate the various mobile options." - Jim Bruene, Publisher & Founder, Online Financial Innovations

"Going Mobile. Local executive carves niche as national expert on fast-growing banking-industry technology trend" - Scott Olson, Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ)

"Brandon McGee, the industry's unofficial ambassador for mobile banking" 

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Mobile Browser Detection


I was playing with my iPhone during half-time of Saturday's game (college basketball - Butler vs. Drake) and decided to perform a little impromptu research. My goal was to find as many mobile friendly sites as I could and then save their iPhone shortcut to my home screen.

That said, there was just one rule. I was not allowed to endlessly search for a link (i.e. because we know that consumers will not). I decided that I would simply:
1) Enter the company name into Google
2) Click on the link to their homepage
3) See where I landed

I didn't keep an exhaustive list, but from memory I'm confident that I visited the following: Starbucks, Best Buy, Circuit City, Walmart, Target, JCPenny, Kohls, Lowes, Home Depot, Macys, Sears, Dicks, Gander Mountain, AMC Theater, Hilton, Hyatt, Westin, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, Donatos, and Amazon.com

Of those listed above the following 3 detected that I was utilizing a mobile browser and took me to a mobile site.

1) Pizza Hut
2) Hilton (Powered by Usablenet Mobile)
3) Amazon.com

Of the three I would then award the "best in class" to Amazon.com. I found their site intuitive and powerful. In fact, using my mobile device, I found a hiking backpack that I'd been searching for and promptly returned the one I had previously purchased. Additionally, Amazon.com was the only site which also integrated an iPhone shortcut.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

BestBuy & CircuitCity has launched their mobile sites. ESPN mobile is good as well.