Mobile Web must die!
Summary: Mowser, a startup that concentrated on mobile web browsing, is no more. While it's sad to see a startup die, especially one where the founder put in so much work, heart and money go under, I think that it's time for the whole concept of mobile web to die.
Mowser, a startup that concentrated on mobile web browsing, is no more. While it's sad to see a startup die, especially one where the founder put in so much work, heart and money go under, I think that it's time for the whole concept of mobile web to die.
Mobile web is a product of a "think small" mentality. In the early days it was necessary to have that "think small" mentality because the hardware and software of the time just wasn't up to delivering a full-on web experience on an ultra-portable device. That age is now coming to a close and devices such as the iPhone and iPod touch have shown us that it is possible to have a decent browsing experience on a mobile device.
The days of the term mobile being used as an excuse to deliver a web experience where pages are jumbled (sometimes beyond comprehension) and access to online services is limited should be at an end, or at the very least coming to an end. Modern devices have the storage capacity and processing power to be able to deliver a lot more than that and software vendors now need to abandon the term mobile web, along with all the "think small" attitude that came with that, and instead concentrate on a single word - web.
I mentioned earlier how the iPhone and iPod touch are now at the cutting edge when it comes to offering a good web experience when on the move. However, the Safari browser on these devices is far from perfect. There's still a lot of work to be done. For example:
- Support for Flash
- Better caching
- An effective way to synchronize bookmarks between the desktop PC and the mobile device
- Better security
- Lots and lots of usability tweaks
Forget mobile web. Think web!
Thoughts? What do you want to see from the web when you are on the move?
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Talkback
Think Nokia Mobile Web Server.
Nokia: [url=http://www.nseries.com/open]Open to anything[/url]
Think Nokia Mobile Web Server.
Nokia: [url=http://www.nseries.com/open]Open to anything[/url]
Haven't you heard about .mobi?
That's where .mobi comes: http://dotmobi.mobi
If you want a few examples of why .mobi IS the genuine "mobile" web, have a look at the sites found in this directory: http://mtld.mobi/showcase/all
Content adaptation solutions such as the iPhone and Opera Mini are place holders - and transitional technologies - for genuine mobile web content which is now finally starting to appear thanks to .mobi (have a look at Zagat.mobi, BofA.mobi, BMW.mobi, Marriot.mobi, Amtrak.mobi, FoxNews.mobi, Time.mobi, Weather.mobi, Frankfurt.mobi, just to name a few).
It's a chicken before the egg problem. Users won't start using the mobile web until there is more content specifically geared for small screens and users on the go. That's where .mobi comes in.
What kind of drug are you on?
The zoomed browsing experience on the iPhone *the* defining element of what portable browsing should have been from day one. And I don't even own anything made by Apple (yet).
Sure, "browsing" (if you can even call it that in the post-iPhone world) on a 1 inch screen will have a place, but it will be limited to advertising or very simple queries. No one in their right mind will spend 1/2 hour browsing a "mobi" site, and I don't care if BMW designed it or not.
It's over, whether totally or not. Celluon already has their virtual keyboard tecknology. All be need is virtual display capability and mobi is dead once and for all.
It's all about the screen size.
I hope you are not arguing that Zooming and Panning actually [b]adds[/b] value to the mobile browsing experience.
You also mentioned mobile projection technologies. Although those are still many, [b]many[/b] years away, they are a very exciting concept. However, will people really be projecting their mobile browser on to the Subway Train's wall for everyone to see? The beauty of the mobile phone is that it gives the user a lot more privacy than a PC (they're smaller and easier to obscure and are normally only used by the owner and not shared). This is one of the reasons why mobile adult sites are expected to thrive.
By the way, I will come back in 2 years to quote you specifically on this part:
[i]"No one in their right mind will spend 1/2 hour browsing a "mobi" site"[/i]
Then we will see who was the one on drugs. :)
P.S. You also obviously have not heard about Mobile Books.
Some good points
I would say zoom/pan adds value because the entire web is at your fingertips, not just a subset.
The problem with non-pan/zoom is that all of a sudden there has to be dynamic sizing for all different screens to ensure content is "screen specific". That's a lot more work than a normal page that is zoomed.
I guess we will see. I know I like my bio-degradeable paperback on the beach :)