Mobile browsing clearly does have its limitations, mainly from its smaller physical design, but it also limited by web sites not having a mobile version tailored for the smaller screen. Current mobile web browsing stats stands at 4.5% of total world-wide internet usage and, with the prediction for the next five years being that more users will connect to the internet over mobile devices than desktop computers, it is now time to act and make your website mobile friendly.

Of course, it does depend on the size and complexity of your site, but creating a mobile version of your site does neither have to be over-expensive nor very time-consuming, especially if your site has been built using WordPress. As everybody knows, WordPress is by far and away the most popular CMS, and with it comes a thriving community of designers and developers that constantly push its boundaries further and ever-more improving its functionality. Its community has realized for some time that the mobile phenomenon has been coming, and as such does have a multitude of themes, plugins and resources available that will help you create a mobile version of your site with the minimum of fuss.

In this article, Mobile Toolbox for WordPress, we highlight themes (free and premium), plugins and easy-to-follow tutorials that will help you create a mobile version of your site.

Free Mobile WordPress Themes

iPhonsta 1.1

Despite its name iPhonsta does not exclusively only work on the iPhone, it works on most mobile devices, like Android, Palm Pre and Blackberry. The theme has a fluid layout, configures the font size automatically and is WordPress 3 compatible.
iPhonsta Home →View the Demo →

Smooci 2

This basic free theme works in conjunction with the Smooci (WordPress on Mobiles) plugin which is used to display the mobile optimised theme when your WordPress site is visited via a mobile device.
Smooci 2 Home →View the Demo →

WordPress Mobile Theme

This is a minimalistic and lightweight theme that will fit perfectly with all the mobile phones resolutions. The three key features of this theme are: You can choose your own theme color from the theme options; The theme can have 100% width if you want the theme to fit on every mobile phone, or you can define a fixed width in pixels to target special users; The front page will dynamically create thumbnails for your posts.
WordPress Mobile Theme Home →View the Demo →

jQuery Mobile

Built with the incredible jQuery Mobile plugin, this theme is perfect for those who want to make a good looking and easy to read version of their blog. It uses most of jQuery Mobile features to guarantee an optimal ease of reading on mobile devices such as the iPhone, Blackberry or Android.
jQuery Mobile Home →View the Demo →

Mobius

Mobius is a feature rich free theme that is compatible with all touchscreen mobile phones (iPhone & iPod Touch, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Palm Pre, Symbian…). It comes packaged with three variations (Sky Blue, Amethyst & Rain Forest), its widget ready, native support of non-web fonts (@font-face) and also has optional Twitter and Facebook icons.
Mobius Home →

The dotMobi WordPress Mobile Pack

The dotMobi WordPress Mobile Pack is a complete toolkit from dotMobi to help mobilize your WordPress site and blog.
It includes a mobile switcher to select themes based on the type of user that is visiting the site, a selection of mobile themes, extra widgets, device adaptation and a mobile administration panel to allow users to edit the site or write new posts when out and about.
The dotMobi WordPress Mobile Pack →

Carrington Mobile

Carrington Mobile is an elegant mobile theme with that supports advanced touch browsers (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Pre) and is also backward compatible with older mobile devices.
Carrington Mobile Home →View the Demo →

Premium WordPress Mobile Themes

touchPress

A beautiful 4 in 1 theme (Blackboard, Wood, Leather, Nature), with 2 widget ready areas, gestures based navigation and auto-resizes images. Automatic detection if a user visits your website from an iPhone and iPod touch, thanks to its built-in plugin that comes packed with the theme.
Price: $22
touchPress Home →

1ST Giant Leap

1stGiantLeap Mobile is a HTML5 /CSS3 template tuned to look perfect in mobile browsers. The markup is device orientation (landscape/portrait) sensitive, so when you change device orientation by rotating it 90 degrees CW or CCW this template will look nice.
Price: $15
1ST Giant Leap →

WPtouch 2.0 Pro

WPtouch 2.0 Pro allows you to setup a feature-rich and fast version of your website for touch-mobile devices with just a few clicks. It does come packaged with a wide variety of pre-built themes, or you could build your own custom theme with WPtouch’s Skeleton theme template. It scales post images, captions and videos automatically and breaks up content with ‘Load More’ links that use ajax to make browsing easier for visitors.
Price: Its FREE for the basic version, $39 for Pro, $69 for the Pro 5 pack and $199 for the full developer pack.
WPtouch 2.0 Pro Home →

Mobility WordPress Theme for Web and iPad

Mobility is an iPad-ready WordPress theme with finger sliding capabilities and a custom drag-and-drop gallery admin. Both the regular and iPad versions have seven color options and the choice between a single or three-way JavaScript slider on the homepage. The iPad version can switch between portrait and landscape mode upon rotation.
Price: $30.
Mobility WordPress Theme for Web and iPad Home →View the Demo →

WordPress Mobile Theme Framework from Obox

Obox Mobile is a WordPress Mobile Theme Framework that gives your site a unique and beautiful layout which is compatible for mobile devices. Obox Mobile comes packaged with two Obox Themes (MobiLight & MobiDark) as well as WooMobile from WooThemes.
We currently use Obox Mobile for Speckyboy.
Price: $50.
WordPress Mobile Theme Framework Home →View the Demo →

Simple Mobile

Simple Mobile is feature-rich theme that works parallel with another theme and presented to mobile users only. It comes with 8 color schemes, collapsible multi-level menu, WP 3.0 custom menus support, 43 social media icons, a slick Twitter implementation (optimized for speed) and much more.
Price: $20.
Simple Mobile Home →View the Demo →

PadPressed

PadPressed functions as a WordPress plugin and allows publishers to take their content and make it perfectly formatted for the iPad. The most important aspect of PadPressed is its 100% design for the tablet touch experience. Each skin plays to a specific touch dynamic. SwipePad focuses on swiping to advance and a swipe featured slider. It notices the orientation (portrait or landscape) of a reader’s iPad.
Price: $49 for a single license and $149 for a developer license.
VIDEO
PadPressed Home →View the Demo →

My Mobile Page

The My Mobile Page WordPress Theme is a minimal mobile WordPress theme with a modern look and a lot of cool features. This theme can be used for personal mobile pages, web designers mobile pages, artists mobile pages and many other. The theme use automatic resolution detection so you can use for small screen resolutions and bigger resolutions.
Price: $20
My Mobile Page Home →View the Demo →

On Demand Mobile

This is a joint collaboration between WPtap (plugin developers) and Press75 (theme developers) to release a mobile version of the video theme On Demand, providing a fully featured video solution for mobile platforms.
Price: On Demand Mobile for $49, or with On Demand iPad for $90.00
On Demand Mobile Home →View the Demo →

Tap News – iPhone App Style Mobile Theme

Tap News is an iphone-app style mobile plugin/theme package that instantly converts your wordpress site into a mobile web-application experience. It is specially designed for iPhone/iPod touch, Android, and Blackberry touch mobile device. The theme features elegant iPhone-style sliding layout, and it will truly turn your site into a mobile application. Other features include thumbnail pictures, full support for twitter, social bookmarking, and email.
Price: $49
Tap News Home →View the Demo →

iBusiness iPhone-iPod Template

iBusiness is a website template designed especially for the iPhone/iPod. It comes with 9 different themes, 3 page templates, 3 widget areas, PSD source files, Twitter stream, and much more.
Price: $15.
iBusiness Home →View the Demo →

Video Theme for iPhone & Android

The Video Tube theme is specifically designed for video blogging and content sharing on your mobile site. It fully supportsthe iPhone/iPod Touch, Android, and touch-based Blackberry devices.
With all WordPress features and customized insertion functions, it makes adding Youtube and MP4 videos to your mobile site exetremely easy.
Price: $49.
Video Theme Home →View the Demo →

SOFA iBloggr

Sofa iBloggr perfectly fits to the iPhones 320px wide screen without the need for screen orientation switch. You can easily turn this theme into Blog + Flickr + Twitter mashup. iBloggr supports widgets, it has a built-in Plugger system, almost everything can be controlled from theme options page – including quick translation table, image size, Post excerpt length…
Price: $15.
SOFA iBloggr Home →View the Demo →

News Press Mobile Theme

The News Gallery theme is designed with the photography blogger in mind featuring frontpage slideshow, thumbnail picture and gallery style layout options. It is the perfect choice for image-centric and magazine style WordPress websites. It comes with six stylish colors designed to fit your sites’ unique profile and style.
Price: $49
News Press Mobile Theme Home →View the Demo →

iWorld

iWorld is a jQuery powered feature-rich mobile theme. It comes with 10 color schemes, built-in slider & contact form (including validation plugin), Twitter & Flickr widget, a selection of social icons and comes with PSD source.
Price: $25.
iWorld Home →View the Demo →

Video Elements Mobile

Video Elements Mobile Home →View the Demo →

WordPress Mobile Plugins

MobilePress – Enable The Mobile Web →
MobilePress is a free open source plugin that is flexible in that it allows you to customize your mobile presence by creating your own themes, creating themes for specific mobile browsers (iPhone and generic devices) and also allowing you to decide when to display your mobile blog.

WPmob Lite →
WPmob automatically transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-style theme, complete with ajax loading articles and effects, when viewed from an iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Opera Mini, Palm Pre, Samsung touch and BlackBerry Storm/Torch mobile devices. The admin panel allows you to customize many aspects of its appearance, and deliver a fast, user-friendly and stylish version of your site

WP Mobile Detector →
WP Mobile Detector is a simple plugin that automatically detects standard and advanced mobile devices and displays a compatible WordPress mobile theme.

Mobile Kit →
MobileKit is a small WordPress plugin created to make the development of WP mobile themes and apps simple, allowing theme designers to create more immersive user experiences across platforms and devices.

BAAP Mobile Version →
The BAAP Mobile Version is a complete toolkit to help mobilize your WordPress site and blog.
It includes a mobile switcher to select themes based on the type of user that is visiting the site, a selection of mobile themes, extra widgets, device adaptation and a mobile administration panel to allow users to edit the site or write new posts when out and about.

BuddyPress Mobile →
This is a Mobile BuddyPress theme that has been optimized for viewing onthe iPhone and iPod Touch, and will also work on Android and some Blackberry devices.

WordPress Mobile Tutorials

Mobile WordPress Theming →
In this four part tutorial series, from Mobile Tuts+, you will learn how to create a powerful mobile WordPress theme that can be applied to your blog making the site easily accessible to mobile users.
Mobile WordPress Theming: Day 1 →
Mobile WordPress Theming: Day 2 →
Mobile WordPress Theming: Day 3 →
Mobile WordPress Theming: Day 4 →

Making your WordPress Blog Android and iPhone Friendly →
This article is intended for those who already have a web or WordPress background. If you don’t quite understand how to put together your own templates, this detailed tutorial may not for you.

Mobile Browser Detection →
This tutorial covers everything you will need to know about mobile browser detection covering a spectrum of various options, including a WP solution and a PHP solution.

Redirect Mobile Users to a Mobile WordPress Theme →

Detect Mobile Browsers – Mobile User Agent Detection →
This PHP function lets you choose how to manage your mobile visitors, they can be redirected to a page built for mobiles or you can use it to decide which markup language and stylesheet to show that user.

Add a Mobile Landing Page to Your Site →
This tutorial isn’t about creating an entire mobile version of your site, instead it is a means of offering a quick introduction to visitors from the mobile world before passing them through through to your main site.

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