There’s a lot of buzz about mobile devices accessing company Web sites nowadays. We get a lot of questions about whether our work is compatible with browsers on mobile devices (for the most part, it is). Almost all of the questions we get are about the iPhone.

It is important to know the facts about mobile browser usage in the real world. Perception does’t match the reality of today’s mobile environment:

- Even though almost all questions we get about mobile browsers involve the iPhone, most smart phones sold today aren’t actually iPhones. According to tech firm, Canalys, the top operating system on smart phones in Quarter 3 of last year was actually Google’s Android operating system with 44% market share. Apple’s iPhone is almost tied for 2nd place with RIM’s Blackberry, both at rough 25%. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile was far behind at 3% (though, they released a new version in quarter 4 which probably increased market share).

- Even though almost every one is asking about them, mobile phones make up a very small amount of web traffic on corporate Web sites. 2-3% of traffic is normal. While it is growing, that small number makes mobile not a huge concern for most business owners. There are exceptions: news, sports and information get more traffic from phones. But lawyers, doctors, product retailers and most other sites will stay in the 2-3% range for a while longer.

- Most Web sites automatically work on mobile phones without changes. That’s because Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone Web Browsers use “webkit,” which is the basis for Apple’s Safari Web Browser and Google’s Chrome Web Browser. For the most part, things that work on those browsers work on the phones too. There is one major exception: Adobe’s Flash — which is used for animations and videos — doesn’t work on the iPhone and some Android phones. The Android issue will be resolved over time as phones get upgraded or replaced, the iPhone issue is the result of a squabble between Apple and Adobe and doesn’t look set to change anytime soon. So for videos and animations to work on the iPhone, they have to be recoded.

We hope that helps. What other mobile questions do you have?