The pulse of Alexander Interactive

PSFK has published a report (disconcerting, damning or riotous, depending on your station) showing that many top luxury brand websites don’t function on the iPad. (That image above is the Prada home page.) Given that Apple buyers are often luxury product consumers, this is a glaring omission for some of the world’s strongest brands.

The iPad is a reminder that the web is now rapidly moving away from the “build a website, let it run” strategy. A growing diversity of web-enabled devices is going to force companies to build websites that make usability the prime directive. The direct problem is the use of Flash, but the real issue is the lack of universal accessibility.

The growth in broadband mobile networks has led to rapid adoption of web access by consumers. Smartphones are nearing 20% of the American cellular marketplace and are expected to reach 30% soon. Ai clients saw growth in mobile traffic as high as 600% over 2009 alone.

The iPad is the latest and most profound bellwether in this usage shift. Contemplating how to service users with 1.5″ BlackBerry screens was one thing; dealing with iPad users, with their 1024×768 screens and just-like-a-laptop-only-better expectations, is entirely another. And while the iPad may be just a first step in an evolution, a million unit sales in a month suggests someone found the keys to the steamroller.

Computers are not going away; manufacturers shipped 68 million of them in 2008 alone. More important is the fragmentation of the marketplace, which, years after homogenizing almost entirely in Internet Explorer for Windows, is now an open landscape. Four different browsers have substantial (greater than 3%) market share. And dozens of devices are now displaying web pages in displays ranging from 320 to 1920 pixels in width, both with and without Flash.

The requirement for 2010, then, is to adapt to the fragments. Good websites need to actively identify visitors’ platforms and deliver user-centric results–not just the Amazons and Facebooks of the web, but the many small- and medium-size sites that encourage exploration and engagement. As platforms continue to diversify, creating flexible, accessible sites is a must.

Google’s announcement of its Chrome web browser is a potential game-changer in the browser industry. But the team feeling the impact will be at the Mozilla Foundation, not Microsoft.

Internet Explorer remains the dominant Web browser and there’s little reason to doubt its continued majority presence. Between personal users who are content with a brand they trust (Microsoft, if not directly IE) and companies whose installed bases are running complete Windows environments, the inclination to shift practices is not present. It’s why Netscape died quickly and why Firefox, despite all its accolades and encouragements, still has less than 20% market share. The same goes for Safari, whose usage rate closely mirrors Apple’s market share as a whole. Most users are content with what they’re given, so long as it works.

Instead of another great user migration, Google will see its first million or so downloads coming from the same advocates who swear by Firefox. Mozilla’s market share will dip accordingly. Don’t be surprised if the browser split, currently 74/19/6 for IE/Safari/FF, spins down to, say, 73/13/5/8 for IE/Safari/FF/Chrome next year. Firefox’s gains could slow by a third if Chrome is any good.

But Google is taking the long view with this project. With the continued splintering of access between desktops, phones, gaming systems and other devices, Google is likely working on a fully platform-agnostic browser. Much as Apple has done with Safari on the iPhone, Chrome will be easily inserted into Treos, Playstations, and anything else requiring web support. Over the next few years, Google could develop a strong presence in the market. This is where Microsoft, And Apple, will ultimately have to pay attention.