Mastering the Mobile Web
Earlier this week, Russell Beattie set off a discussion when he announced that his mobile start-up Mowser was ceasing operation and that he believed the mobile web was dead! Now Mowser made it easy to create stripped down mobile websites from existing websites. Michael Arrington of Techcrunch respectfully disagreed saying that the mobile web has just begun. He pointed out that new mobile technology has made it that customers want fuller experiences on their mobile phones. He called out for more developers to build exciting applications to run specifically on the mobile platform.
The Mobile Web Has Just Started
I agree with Michael that mobile web is just in its infancy, but I am not so sure about building a business around an application that directly serves the market through the mobile handset - that is a quick way to the deadpool. I think we are still many years away before the mobile web is the primary form of our web experience. The best web applications will be ones with a web foundation. It's not that I don't think that compelling exclusive mobile web experiences can be built, it is that I think the mass market is not ready for it."Mobile Web Apps Must Complement Our Physical and Virtual Lives"Just as the first internet wave, we cannot view mobile web as a separate entity. The most successful mobile applications will be ones that best integrate our physical and virtual worlds. At this moment, people only view the mobile web as an enhancement to our computer internet experience (Heck, most people only view the web as an enhancement to our physical experiences). Thus the most popular applications are ones complement our online experience.
