One day, only the screen will matter
Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on January 11, 2008
Here's a cheeky prediction for you. One day, emails will display the same whatever webmail service, email client or mobile email solution people use.An exaggeration, but consider this...
1. The positive reaction to the work of the Email Standards Project gives hope that the day is not far off when all webmail services and desktop email software follow a standard set of basic rules on how they display HTML email.
OK, but what about mobile email?
2. As both Morgan Stewart and Computerworld UK point out, the iPhone showed that mobile devices could (should) handle HTML email as well as any desktop device. Other mobile device manufacturers are now scrambling to follow suit.
3. Even ignoring rumors of better HTML email functionality in future Blackberry models, software developers are going their own way developing applications for mobile devices that improve their email rendering capabilities. Like this one.
4. Mobile operators want to sell more data plans and mobile device manufacturers want to sell new (smart)phones. It's in both groups' interests to see mobile email catch on, which means making mobile email more efficient, easy-to-use and compatible with our existing email user experiences. Ergo...more incentive to get mobile devices displaying HTML email the way we're used to.
Of course, even if this scenario plays out positively, it will take time. So display inconsistencies between different devices, services and software will be with us for a while. And whatever happens, we still face two more problems as marketers.
1. There's a big display difference between a large desktop monitor and a small window on your mobile phone.
2. There's a big difference in the way people perceive and tackle incoming email depending on whether they're sitting at an office desk, at home or in an airport waiting room.
What say you?
More on mobile email design | Tags: email design, mobile email, wireless email, html email
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2 Comments:
"1. There's a big display difference between a large desktop monitor and a small window on your mobile phone."
That's one of the biggest benefits of achieving web standards support in all the modern email clients. Once that happens, you can easily separate content from presentation using CSS.
This means that those devices with less screen real estate can easily display a simplified version of even the most complex newsletters without the need to send an alternate version targeted at mobile devices.
We can only hope...
By 
Dave Greiner, on
12 January, 2008
Hope indeed. I figure the more we talk about the possibility, the more likely it is to happen... ;-)
By 
Mark Brownlow - Email Marketing Reports, on
14 January, 2008
