The business of our company is Mobile Web. This means that we are solving issues people have on the go using internet, away from their main computer. While the Japanese access the Web from their phones more often than from desktop terminals, it is not the case in the rest of the world. People expect tight integration between the website they get on a mobile device and the “full” version.

What’s more important, the mobile use case (our core business, but 20% of the time) or the desktop use case (complementary, but critical for discovery and branding)? What should be designed first?

More and more great mobile services appear when popular websites take some of their functionality mobile. For example, various air travel-related products are a good match for mobile, yet still require the infrastructure investment that comes with building a portal like Kayak or Expedia. A typical chicken-and-egg riddle exists here - should one design for the mobile from the very start, or build a regular web service and then optimize it for mobile viewing?

The approach taken will depend on the specifics of the mobile activity, including the sharing mechanism. However, as mobile browsers evolve and boundaries between device categories start to vanish, it is important to pursue both modes. It is wise to invest at least a third of the development effort into the full web component of a mobile-oriented product.