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What is 'mobile'?

Mobile refers to apps and experiences running on mobile devices.

Mobile devices

Mobile devices are phones, tablets, watches, TVs, in-car systems, smart-speakers, wearables, and pretty much anything else that has "smart" in its name and runs software. They typically run iOS or Android, but there are a few other operating systems out there.

Apps and experiences

Apps and experiences allow users to interact with their devices, and they come in a few different flavours:

  • Installed apps: Such as the ones you see on the home screen of your phone.
  • Apps with novel user interfaces: Such as voice interactions and messaging integrations.
  • Mobile web-apps: Which are accessed via a browser on your device.

Mobile-first

Mobile-first is an approach for designing online experiences that work on small, mobile device screens first, and then scaling them up to work on larger displays. It typically refers to web, rather than mobile apps.

The build of both mobile-first systems and mobile web-apps is an important part of a customer's overall mobile strategy, but delivery will typically be a full-stack service.

Form factors

The term "form factor" refers to the shape and size of a device. In the context of contemporary mobile devices, it is essentially the same as the device category, e.g., phone, tablet, watch, etc.