So most of us working in business have the new fancy smart phones. We have matured quickly from the clunky Blackberry with its confusing buttons to the aesthetically beautiful iPhones, N95 and Storm.

Digital savvy that we are, we share tips on iPhone apps easily and won’t understand why all websites haven’t got one to make our lives just that little bit easier.

I don’t know about you but I don’t have time to browse on my iPhone. I’d rather find an app that does the job for me and download that.

I’m part of a nerd circle that is constantly contactable and never without mobile broadband range to tweet my latest sickly musing or read the latest updates from my Twitter network.

But how does mobile translate outside my little digital bubble?

How many ‘regular’ people use smart phones in Northern Ireland and how important is it for businesses to think of it as a promotional portal?

According to the latest release from Com Reg Q1 2009, 14% of the Northern Irish population have a 3G handset, lagging behind the UK where 22% of the population have a ‘fancy mobile’. Also interestingly, 3G access via mobile devices was found to be highest amongst those living in Belfast and its surrounding area.

This slightly dampens the |enthusiasm around the ability for an iPhone application to reach a broadcast audience |in Northern Ireland.

If only 14% of mobile-owning adults can actually access such a product it certainly reduces the opportunity for a funky geo-specific idea being used by a large amount of the population. This is why it’s important to be wary in the development of iPhone apps which can only work in Northern Ireland, unless they are part of a long term strategy and have a powerful PR angle; it may prove difficult to promote them enough to get them used widely here.

However, 93% of Northern |Ireland’s population has a |mobile phone and was found to be more likely than those in the UK to access the internet using |their mobile.

There is still an opportunity to reach a larger audience. We are also above average consumers of video on mobile phones with 7% of the population having done so — indicating a liking for digital mobile content although few of us, 1% in fact, view mobile video on the internet.

What these findings have told me is that we must be careful about the hype around mobile internet when we are focusing on the Northern Ireland market.

Mobile has been growing remarkably quickly with the advent of smart phones. In the last few years our habits have changed for good, moving beyond calling and texting to listening to audio and watching video.

If we look at what is going on in Asia, we can see that we have exciting times ahead.

A few years from now we may be using our handsets as a retail passport — being able to purchase items by scanning our mobile (like the Oyster card used on the London underground). Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) will allow our mobile handset to come alive with useful information that is location specific. Imagine standing outside a cinema only to have your phone come alive with the listings of films showing inside — so you don’t even have to go to check at the counter. The MAR applications being shown on Android are only a tip of the iceberg as to what can be possible with mobile in the future, but it’s actually more important to know what to do today!

Mobile internet platforms are becoming more important and your company web presence should be ready to embrace new habits in browsing.

As highlighted earlier in this piece, Smart phones with Safari browsers are still being used by only 14% of the population but this will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Be ready to create mobile or ‘m’ versions of your website — short and concise structures where the most important information is shown to your users.

Good examples of ‘m’ sites include ‘m.guardian.co.uk’ and ‘m.bbc.co.uk’, as always they are first to market with innovative digital platforms.

I advise Northern Ireland businesses to be more wary of the hype around iPhone applications and focus more on creating mobile friendly versions of their existing web presence — make it easier for users to navigate the content you already have through the new device.

As always, the mantra with online buzz is, don’t get caught up in the hype just be ready for it to go mainstream quickly.

Ruairi McNally is media director for Bluecube Interactive (www.bluecubeinteractive.com ). His email address is Ruairi@bluecubeinteractive.com