Smartphones and tablets are becoming so popular that some businesses have abandoned their traditional websites.
American consumers are using their mobile gadgets on an increasing basis in order to access websites, and this trend is reaching the point that companies have decided to abandon their websites on the traditional web in order to focus all of their attention on the smaller screen.
Though the desktop and laptop is far from being over, the number of smartphone users is skyrocketing.
A prime example of this complete switch occurred when the website, Hinge, which is designed to be an online matchmaker, had been having a rough time trying to draw potential daters. Instead of maintaining their site on the standard web, they decided to dump that effort and place all of their focus on apps that can be downloaded and used on smartphones and tablets. This occurred in February, and it gave the company the ability to build a stronger base of users.
The reason was that the company’s core market was young singles, a demographic that uses mobile gadgets.
People within that age group were very likely to use their devices for activities that they are capable of accomplishing quickly and easily no matter where they happen to be at the time. Though this may not work for something that requires more information or that is more involved, the Hinge concept worked very well as an app when compared to a standard website for laptops and desktops.
The chief exec of Hinge, Justin McLeod, explained that “More and more people are using mobile as opposed to desktop [computers] for things like dating.” He added that “That’s where the world’s going.”
The world still loves its desktops and laptops. However, as an increasing number of people own smartphones and tablets, and as they add to the number of activities that they accomplish over those devices, they are starting to find that tasks such as meeting people to date – which involve very basic searches and communications online – suit the smaller screen quite nicely.
Therefore, for companies that have services and products that are well suited to mobile gadgets, it can make sense to place all of their focus on those channels, instead of their old traditional websites.
Computer scientists named Pokai Chen and Meng-syun Tsai at the NationalChiao Tung University (NCTU) believe that mobile security’s solution to the password problem is to step back to the time in which the only identification that a person ever needed to provide was his or her signature. They have developed an application that allows a user to log in by drawing something distinct – such as a signature – in the air while holding a smartphone.