The Mobile Web Is Not Dead, It’s Misunderstood
Posted by victor on Apr 15, 2008 in Mobile Websites, Mobilize
Yesterday after Russell Beattie blogged about the closing down of Mowser, I noticed a few mobile web is dead posts going around.
I’ll let you in on a little secret, the Mobile Web isn’t dead. It’s not entirely understood and some folks are finding that out. Why? It’s a different space. Today, the Mobile Web is a light weight extension of the web and so rendering full blown web apps as they appear on the desktop browser is not really feasible on a light weight extension.
Call me crazy but I don’t believe that’s what the mobile web is going to evolve into. That’s where some over-estimation has occurred in my opinion. We’re just not going to see the entire web and the web sites as they exist today go mobile and why should we?
It has the potential to be the ultimate social network if someone would create the killer mobile social app. While it’s only a lightweight extension other huge advantages like presence of you and others, location and mobility all exist. These are different dimensions that don’t exist on the desktop.
Wouldn’t it be better to have mobile social web apps that let you connect to businesses and individuals based on your location while you’re moving or stopping in new places vs. a mobile version of a desktop based web site?
People want applications like that. They also want to talk to the app not just the device. When will we see voice activated mobile web apps? If I’m on a mobile site and looking at a product I’m thinking of purchasing I want to be able to issue voice commands to move through the process, not type or click:
- buy it
- sign in
- sign out
- call me for payment details
That’s why it’s different. The mobile web apps we’re seeing now are mostly mini versions of existing web applications.