February 17, 1997
New Web Gadgets Complicate Web Design
By Bob O'Donnell
I love gadgets and I love the Web. So when I come across gadgets that give me access to
the Web, I get pretty jazzed. At last week's Demo 97
conference, which InfoWorld sponsors, there were plenty of opportunities to get
excited about this combination. Many companies made announcements about and gave
demonstrations of Web-enabled hand-held devices, including cellular phones, personal
digital assistants, and hand-held PCs, as well as Web-enabled consumer devices such as an
Internet-ready phone. And, WebTV and some Windows CE-based Handheld PCs
(HPCs) that were announced a few months ago were also on display.
Seeing all these devices, it became apparent that the phenomenon of non-PC-based Web
browsing is very real and growing rapidly. Everywhere I looked, people were eyeing what
their companies' sites looked like on the small, grayscale screens of the various devices,
curious to find out what worked and what didn't.
The reason for their interest, I believe, was the appeal of this new range of devices.
On the hand-held PC front, for example, Phillips and HP offered their additions to the
rapidly maturing Windows CE platform. Phillips' Velo1
offers a built-in 19.2 software-only modem that lets you connect directly to the 'net
without extra peripherals and without drastically reducing the battery life of the HPC. HP's 320LX, on
the other hand, features the first 640 pixel-wide screen, which makes Web browsing easier
and more graphically appealing.
In the Newton world, Apple's Newton MessagePad
2000 and eMate 300 offer a built-in Web browser for the first time, as well as larger,
480 pixel-wide screens.
A new range of telephony devices also sported Internet access features. AT&T's PocketNet cellular phone,
for example, lets the user access a variety of data sources on the 'net - sans wires -
although its minuscule screen makes it difficult to see much at once. More interesting was
the impressive Navitel Touch Phone, a Windows
CE-based smart phone that combines advanced telephony features with a built-in Web browser
and a 640 x 480 touchscreen display, all for $499.
For IS managers, some of these devices offer users easy mobile access to the Web. More
importantly, however, the growth of these Web gadgets has important implications for
Web-site development. Many organizations that have had a Web presence for a
year-and-a-half or more are looking to revamp their offerings, integrating some of the
technology that's appeared over the last few months as well as learning from their initial
mistakes.
As part of these redesign efforts, I think companies will need to plan for non-PC-based
browsers and make appropriate adjustments. In some cases this may mean simply keeping the
requirements of these devices in mind and viewing layouts on smaller, 2- and 4-bit
grayscale screens, as well as via text-only browsers. Other companies, however, may want
to customize some of their offerings to specifically meet the need of this small, but
growing audience.
There's no question that PCs will continue to be the premiere platform for Web
browsing, but it also seems clear that as the Internet becomes more ubiquitous and a
larger part of mainstream culture, its resources will be tapped from an increasingly wide
variety of devices. Planning for that diversity of incoming devices will be an important
challenge for IS departments charged with managing their company's Web efforts.
I just can't wait to start surfin' from the palm of my hand.
©
Copyright 1997, by InfoWorld Publishing Corp., a
subsidiary of IDG Communications, Inc. Reprinted from InfoWorld,
155 Bovet Road, San Mateo, CA 94402. Further reproduction is prohibited.
