New Mexico’s biggest strength as a tech community is its people – so we’d like to share more about some of our members, their interests, skills and expertise. Our first volunteer is Larry S. Bonura, who tweets about ‘Mobile Elegance’ at https://twitter.com/lbonura. Learn more about Larry at: http://lbonura.com/ And please let us know if you’re interested in contributing your thoughts on tech as well!

Mobile Elegance: Mobile Friendly Sites of New Mexico

by Larry S. Bonura

Nearly half of all cell phone owners now use a smartphone.  This means in the U.S. alone, 63 million people own smartphones.  Even though they see the world on small screens, they now have a personal, handheld computer at the ready to get through their day.

According to the latest Nielsen data from a survey of 20,000 mobile users, 48% of American adults own a smartphone, up from 44% in the third quarter of 2011.

Smartphone Penetration by Age and Income

While some suggest that Nielsen tends to be the most aggressive among research firms when it comes to estimating how many Americans have smartphones, others suggest a lower percentage, but still a growing number.  For instance, comScore estimated smartphone penetration as of December at 42%.

A new Pew study estimates 46% of U.S. adults own smartphones, up 11 percentage points since last May. Almost every major demographic group—men and women, younger and middle-aged adults, urban and rural residents, the affluent and the less well-off—has seen a measurable uptick in smartphone penetration in the last year. Adoption levels are highest—60% or more—among college graduates, those making $75,000 or more and 18-35-year-olds. Seniors still aren’t jumping on the bandwagon, with only 13% of people 65 and over having a smartphone.

Mobile friendly vs. apps

While there is little debate that smartphone usage is increasing, there is plenty of discussion as to whether smartphone users prefer to get their data from mobile friendly web sites or from native apps.  From Local Mobile-Ready Websites:  According to Google, 1 out of 5 searches is a local search focusing on local services.  Of all Internet searches performed, 1.3 billion people do searches on their mobile devices.  Sadly, of all .com, .net, and .org websites, less than 1 in 100 of them is mobile ready—out of 240 million websites!  This means that 99 out of 100 websites are not mobile friendly.  Another study shows mobile’s overall share of Web traffic in the United States has increased to about 9%, according to StatCounter, which is also the same percentage from the Mongoose Metrics Data Series.

It’s fairly easy to find apps for the four largest smartphone operating systems through their online storefronts: the App Store for iPhone , the Marketplace for Windows Phone, the Blackberry App World, and the Android Market.  For this article, we are going to let the app world take care of itself.  Search and you’ll likely find an app for your needs.

New Mexico-grown mobile friendly sites

However, finding those mobile friendly sites is hard and usually success is through serendipity.  According to dotMobi, U.S. consumers prefer mobile browsers for banking, travel, shopping, local info, news, video, sports, and blogs and prefer apps for games, social media, maps, and music.  Each day, I tweet two links to mobile friendly sites on my Mobile Elegance blog.  I spend some time each day finding those sites from all over the world.  Now I want to look at some of the sites that are New Mexico-grown.

Business community

Obviously, New Mexico businesses comprise the largest sector of mobile friendly web sites:

  1. Gallup Club
  2. New Mexico Energy FCU

    New Mexico Energy FCU

  3. New Mexico Lawyers
  4. Kesselman-Jones
  5. 42Brewing
  6. Carpet and Fabric Cleaning
  7. Mattress Firm
  8. Jaguar Painting
  9. Duran Central Pharmacy
  10. Hatch Legal Services

Media

Media is a major provider of mobile friendly web sites for the smartphone.  Here are some New Mexico mobile friendly media sites:

  1. Carlsbad Current-Argus
  2. KVIA TV
  3. Las Cruces Sun News

    Las Cruces Sun News

  4. Ruidoso News
  5. Albuquerque Journal
  6. Santa Fe New Mexican
  7. New Mexico Business Weekly
  8. KOB TV
  9. NM3Live Mobile
  10. KRQE TV

Realtors and construction

Realtors and construction industry websites are another segment of the New Mexico business community that heavily favors mobile friendly content:

  1. ABC Door
  2. Northern New Mexico Vacations & Rentals
  3. Las Cruces NM Homes and Real Estate – Keller Williams Realty
  4. High Mesa Builders
    High Mesa Builders 
  5. Anytime Plumbing & Sewer
  6. Franklin Electric
  7. Los Alamos Homes
  8. Blue Sky Home Inspections
  9. Santa Fe Building Supplies
  10. Clovis Construction

Educational institutions

Museum, universities, and K-12 entities offer New Mexico residents a host of mobile friendly content:

  1. Highlands University New Mexico
  2. Roundup Daily
  3. Southwest Soaring Museum
  4. San Juan College
  5. Western New Mexico University

    Western New Mexico University

  6. New Mexico High School Rodeo Association
  7. University of New Mexico
  8. Alamogordo Public Schools
  9. You NM Connect
  10. EMS Aspects

Government entities

As governmental entities are essential to our lives, so they make their sites mobile friendly:

  1. ABQ Convention & Visitors Bureau
  2. Clovis NM
  3. NM Department of Health
  4. Santa Fe Convention and Visitors Bureau
  5. New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division
  6. New Mexico Lottery

    New Mexico Lottery

  7. NewMexico.gov (under construction)
  8. New Mexico Legislature
  9. New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department
  10. NMRoads.com

Sports

Many of us are sports enthusiasts and we want our information anywhere, anytime.  Here are some sites that enable us to be on top while on-the-go:

  1. Bleed Crimson: Your Source for NMSU Aggies Sports News
  2. New Mexico Lobos
  3. New Mexico State Sports
  4. Dan Ford Sports
  5. Western New Mexico Mustangs
  6. Eastern New Mexico Athletics
  7. Ruidoso Ski Rentals!

    Ruidoso Ski Rentals

  8. Everything Bass Fishing
  9. New Mexico Runners
  10. WKYT Sports Headlines

Some more sites

And, just for fun, here are some other mobile friendly sites with a New Mexican twist:

  1. Prescott Studio
  2. Lane DeWitt
  3. New Mexico Homeless Shelters
  4. Design for Mobile
  5. Compu-Fix

    Compu-Fix

  6. Neal Web Design
  7. Robb Hamic, Certified Law Enforcement Trainer
  8. Daniel Ronel MD
  9. Albuquerque Pools
  10.  Church Alive Albuquerque