It’s hard for a month to pass without hearing some desperate cry — either from an app developer or from a “business development” guy who wants to spend your money on an app developer — about how mobile is taking over and everybody has to switch to mobile or they might as well be selling buggy whips and whale oil lamps.

Don’t believe it.

It’s certainly true that mobile devices are surging. One in three Americans owns a smartphone, and one in five owns a tablet.

Worldwide, mobile devices account for 10 percent of web traffic, although that’s somewhat skewed towards Asia and Africa. In the U.S. it’s about 8%.

So … look! 8%! Panic, now! You can’t afford to ignore 8 percent of your market? Quick, develop an app!

Not so fast. Let’s stop and think about that 8 percent.

First, most people who have a mobile device also have (or have access to) a desktop or laptop computer, so you’re not necessarily losing them if you’re not on mobile.

Second, people do different things on different devices. A smartphone is great for taking pictures and posting them to Facebook, for getting your email on the go, or for checking the status of your flight, but you’re not going to do serious research or authoring on the thing. A smartphone is simply not a productivity device, and despite the Apple ads, neither is an iPad. (Although it’s closer.)

Third, fragmentation in the mobile space makes it difficult to get all of those people. Apple or Android? Smartphone or tablet? What screen size? Will you be on e-readers? It’s a mess, and you have to choose the right target.

So … should you develop a mobile website or an app? Maybe. It depends on your market and on what kind of service you offer.

If you run a truck that delivers cup cakes or lobster roles or something, you should definitely be on twitter. People want updates. (At least people who like cupcakes do — so they tell me.)

Twitter is a great tool for certain kinds of business. That doesn’t mean Twitter is great for every business.

I’m in publishing, so I don’t really care about the best business model for people who sell lobster rolls out of trucks. I mean, God bless ’em, but … it doesn’t help me.

Publishers need to heed Douglas Adams’ advice.

If you want to keep up with the Jones’ and you’re just dying to hang with the cool kids and show off your app at cocktail parties, please go right ahead and spend lots of money on mobile development. I’ll help you on evenings and weekends if you’d like.

But if you want to be sensible about it, here are some practical steps to help you plan a mobile strategy.

1. Check your web statistics. How much traffic are you getting from mobile right now? Remember, generalized stats about “mobile usage” include Facebook and Pinterest and stuff that doesn’t apply to you and probably never will.

2. While you’re looking at your web stats, see if you really have a problem. Compare the pages per visit, time on site, abandon rate, etc., of people on mobile to the same stats for people on desktops. Be sure to segment out your paying customers if you can. If there’s no clear difference in behavior, what is the problem you’re trying to solve?

3. Only pay attention to stats for mobile use in your demographic. If you serve 23-year olds you’re going to look on mobile very differently than if you serve 60-year olds.

4. While you’re looking at those demographics, find out which devices are most popular. Remember, generalized stats don’t help you. Do people in your target market prefer iPads or iPhones?

5. Do something really radical and ask your customers. Survey them. Do they even want to get your stuff on a mobile device? (Remember, “would you like?” is a very different thing from “give me money for X,” but you can still get some indication of interest.)

6. Check with customer service. Have people been asking for this? (Remember, if one person complains that’s often a crisis for customer service. Make sure to get some numbers.)

7. Try something easy first. There are lots and lots of services out there that will put your content on their platform for a cut of ad or subscription revenue. Maybe you should try that and see if anybody cares.

The online world is all about segmentation. Before you go crazy with apps, look at the segments that matter to you and see if a mobile solution would really help.