Now that we've got this great start to a mobile site, how does the user get there? yourdomain.mobi? m.yourdomain.com? The truth is, users don't go to mobile sites. They typically do one of two things: Google the site, or enter in the primary domain into the address bar, the same behavior they use on desktop sites. So, it falls on us to properly detect a mobile user and give them the appropriate interface.
There is much debate in the industry as to how this should be done. Most experts seem to agree that you do not want to get into the business of detecting specific platforms, a practice known as user agent sniffing. At first, it doesn't seem such a bad idea. After all, there's really only the four major platforms: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry. Even still, this approach can quickly become a nightmare as new platforms are developed in the future or come into dominance. Here's the real question, why would we care what platform they're on? What...