There was a point in time when Microsoft Windows was seen as some kind of unstoppable natural monopoly in the software ecosystem. Everybody used Windows. It came pre-installed on nearly every new PC.

But a fundamental shift in the way that people access content has changed that equation. Worldwide PC sales fell by 12% last quarter as consumers shift more of their casual browsing activity toward tablets and smartphones. Microsoft’s stock dropped 11% in one day, and analysts attributed the fall to $MSFT’s failure to capitalize on the rapidly-growing mobile market.

If it can happen to a company as large and powerful as Microsoft, this change of preferences can affect your business as well. Consumers are using smartphones and tablets to search for things on the go or browse from their homes. The PC is rapidly becoming a piece of hardware used mostly for performing work tasks. If you want to reach your customers when they are searching for something outside of the workplace, your business needs to be reaching them on their mobile devices.

This means designing your website around the preferences of smartphone and tablet users. One of the most popular ways to do that is to incorporate responsive design elements. This makes it so that the page elements will automatically scale to the size of the device used to view them. Many times older websites display with tiny text and page elements that don’t load on a smartphone or tablet. If potential customers find struggling with a clunky layout to be too inconvenient or even impossible on their device, they may never call or visit your business.

Digital Dogs has designed numerous responsive, mobile-ready websites and iPhone or Android apps for clients. Contact us today to see how we can help your business capitalize on this growing share of web traffic.

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