Why do mobile websites differ???

[Edward78]

Why can;t they just have 1 site for desktop/mobile... All that needs to happen is the phone.tablet needs to shrink it down to fit the screen...

[tarfeef101]

Because some things are easy to do with fingers but not with a mouse, and vice versa???
 

[Mira Yurizaki]

10 minutes ago, Edward78 said:

Why can;t they just have 1 site for desktop/mobile... All that needs to happen is the phone.tablet needs to shrink it down to fit the screen...

Because it would shrink it down to such tiny text and elements that it would present a slew of UX problems such as:

• Can't read the text
• Can't see what the image is
• Can't select anything because fingers are too fat for precision navigation this would require.

[Crunchy Dragon]

-Moved to Programs, Apps, and Websites-

[MikeSK]

Mobile versus Connected Bandwidth can be an additional reason.   Some Mobile apps do not require your phone to have an internet connection to function.  When you are connected, apps can update their content as well as their features.

 

 

12 minutes ago, Edward78 said:

Why can;t they just have 1 site for desktop/mobile... All that needs to happen is the phone.tablet needs to shrink it down to fit the screen...

If your are interested in websites that can scale, check out Bootstrap.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrap_(front-end_framework)
 

[Mira Yurizaki]

On the offchance I misinterpreted @Edward78, the technology already exist to make it so mobile and desktops can access the same resources and it works for both. It's called Responsive Design

 

EDIT: I totally forgot when I wrote this but these forums implement responsive design.

[pcguy0000]

Often, there are multiple different versions of a website, with usually the same website. This is to optimize the user experience depending on the device you are one. 

Example:

If you go on newegg on a laptop, the logo is at the top with the search bar to the right,

On mobile, it is under to make it fit

[pcguy0000]

Im pretty sure with a browser you can click on "request desktop version". It worked on my kindle.

[SupaKomputa]

They do make only 1 page for all devices.

Unlike before, People nowadays usually don't make multiple versions of a website.

Before modern smartphone, a mobile page usually a downgraded version of the real site.

This is to accomodate the very small resolutions and reduce bandwith by stripping bigger elements.

Now, with one codebase a page can automatically adapt to the width of the viewport.

This technique called "responsive design".

No need to strip big elements because internet speed is more than enough.

Also processing power of a mobile phone is considered good enough to display a full web.

The only challenge now is to fix the format of buttons and fonts so it could be viewed clearly on a smaller screen.