Jeff,
Do you think that the increase of traffic comes from smart phones or the recent increase in tablets?
For example, I used to use a PC around the house (I have 3 full PCs and 2 laptops at home) and now I installed IPADS with docking stations in places I didnt have a PC like the library for example and I find myself using that more often. When I use an IPAD I prefer the regular site instead of the mobile site.
Does the IPAD register as a mobile user then when I click regular website it does not?
So besides my first question something to think about is; it looks like these mobile sites are built for smart phones when perhaps more and more customers are coming from tablet devices that prefer the main site anyway?
The increase in traffic is holistic - tablets are selling, smart phones are selling, but even non-android/iphone users are starting to purchase mobile data plans and using their not-so-smart phones to check email or do local searches.
About how a device registers, surely it is important the context that the device is actually being used, i.e. an iPad on the go or at home, but at the same time you have people who are browsing websites on Firefox on a laptop, using internet tethering through their cell phone or a wireless access card, i.e. on the go. In terms of analytics to answer "how many people are on my website while on the go", I think full device on the go and mobile device at home balance out, so you do get a fairly clear picture of what your mobile analytics really are.
Logically speaking, the tracking of device should have nothing to do with whether you're viewing the full version or mobile version of a site. What about an iPad user at home who is using the full version, how should that be counted? If you think it shouldn't be counted as a mobile view, what about an iPad user on the go who is viewing the full version, which is just as likely to happen; should that be counted as a full view? What about an iPad user at home using the mobile version? Do you count them as mobile even though they're at home? In other words, viewing full-size or viewing mobile-size are not very telling as to the physical context of the user.
DealerOn's mobile sites are built to be phone and location agnostic. You can tell because even if you view the mobile version a full sized screen in a standard browser e.g. Firefox it looks great and you get all the localized content you need. On the other hand there are some companies who have mobile dealer websites that are purely iPhone based, or purely Android based in theme and navigation. Dealers should stay away from this, because it will alienate Android users with your all iPhone navigation, or vice versa.
You can see an example of our mobile site in full version by going here:
http://www.coastalnissanboston.com/mobi
For people who want to see how any website looks in mobile version, you can download this plugin for Firefox:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/user-agent-switcher/
