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ON the surface, the mobile Web is a happening place. There’s the iPhone in all its glory. More than 30 companies have signed up for the Open Handset Alliance from Google, which aims to bring the wide-open development environment of the Internet to mobile devices. Nokia, which owns nearly 40 percent of the world market for cellphones, is snapping up Web technology companies and has made an eye-popping $8.1 billion bid for Navteq, a digital mapping service. There are also the requisite start-ups chasing the market.It all looks good, but the wireless communications business smacks of a soap opera, with disaster lurking like your next dropped call.
"The user experience has been a disaster," says Tony Davis, managing partner of Brightspark, a Toronto venture capital firm that has invested in two mobile Web companies.
Mobile Web Has Teething Trouble [nytimes.com]
[edited by: WiseWebDude at 3:42 pm (utc) on Nov. 28, 2007]
For example, a guidebook publisher might have a Web page with mini-reviews of 10 hotels in Widgetville, but its "Mobile Web" application would likely serve up individual mini-reviews (a la the listings in an AAA guidebook) that are designed to be readable and useful on a miniature screen.
As the NYT article points out, the Mobile Web's teething problems involve more than page and device design--they also involve connectivity. There are a lot of different standards floating around (some open, some proprietary), and some of the promised solutions--such as WiMax--have been very slow to get off the ground. What's needed is the ability to carry a cell phone, PDA, or something like the Nokia Internet Tablet anywhere in the world and access the "Mobile Web" without connection hassles or outrageous roaming charges. With luck, that day will come, but it may be a long way off (though it's starting to look closer than it did a few years ago).
I do not see mobile web as EVER having too big of a market share
- Foldable displays in prototype now.
- Mobile screen projectors on the market today.
The way things are going, your grandchildren might have to go to museums to see today's laptop.
It's so good that I suspect it may be "game over" for everyone else in the market.
designed to be readable and useful on a miniature screen.
Not on my phone screen it won't, I'll need to invest in a new phone with a bigger screen, and my phone works fine as a phone, just now. ;)
Technology needs to advance so that the holy grail of at least a PDA-sized screen, with phone, doesn't make a hole in my pocket.
I'm sure we'll get there, but, I can't think of anything less appealing than carrying more gadgets around just so I can access the latest news headlines. I have radio, TV, and even newspapers to do that.
In Europe, 3G was introduced some time back to allow users to access the web, view their favourite football team's goals, and watch movie clips, etc. Telecoms companies gambled big money.
Yes, cost is a problem, too. The charges are simply too high to be of mass appeal. Roaming charges are incredibly expensive, and offputting, imho.
Now, how big a market? Not as big as some hope. It will not rival the audience we have today on desks in terms of $$. But, I was once wrong in my life about something, so it could happen again.
I do not see mobile web as EVER having too big of a market share
I don't see how everyone can still have this view (or similar gloomy ones) given that it already is thriving and profitable and growing markets in Asia-- namely Korea and Japan. some of the markets are saturated already (eg: mobile games).
no, "mobile web" its not the same as the systems used here (generally proprietary), but the systems and devices are still up against the same basic issues you are all concerned about.
Thus, like the "Korean internet", many of teh services, behaviors, biz model implementations are being benchmarked based on Koreamobile culture and tech -- if even just for "crystal ball"/idea purposes.
yah, there are a lot of cultural and tech factors/variables in the way... and the final form will surely be different than you see in Korea/Japan... (and will probably always be somewhat "behind")
but in the end, mark my words, it can and it will happen. no doubts whatsoever. the only "betting" becomes "when?".
- so sayeth Grendel"mobile"Khan{TSU} ^^
Cheers,
Dean
[edited by: jatar_k at 11:32 pm (utc) on Dec. 11, 2007]
[edit reason] no urls thanks [/edit]
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