The silly debate over ‘mobile first’

Henry Blodget at Business Insider is getting attention (and plenty of praise) for this post about the debate over whether developers should make mobile their first priority. Blodget posts a photo of BI staff writers diligently pounding away at their laptops and desktops in the newsroom and asks, “(H)ow much ‘mobile’ do you see in that photo?” He also lists what he calls the two big myths about the mobile debate: 1) That the future will be mobile-only, and 2) All companies should make mobile the top priority over every other platform.

But the whole post strikes me as silly for several reasons. First, I think the “myth” of a mobile-only future is a straw man — I’ve certainly never heard anyone make such a forecast, and I cover this stuff every day. More important, though, is the falsity of a one-size-fits-all development strategy. Of course staffers in the BI newsroom are using traditional computers; those devices are still the most appropriate for the kind of work (namely, writing and researching) that those writers do. But lots of people — both consumers and business types — are using their smartphones and tablets more than they do PCs. So the key for developers is to figure out exactly what they’re trying to accomplish, what problems they’re trying to solve, and then develop for the most appropriate platforms.