Mobile Internet - The Elephant in a Bird Cage

Its here and it feels like mobile internet has come from nowhere in a big hurry. Of course, there will be those that remember the WAP debacle and the various, faltering lurches made by mobile operators around the world in launching mobile data products over the last few-years (a friend recently asked me about the fate of i-mode) and here's an article about why both Telstra and 02 UK ultimately canned it. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/23/imode_fails/

But thats all behind us, its here now and I don't just mean downloading of gimmicky ringtones and content. This is THE hottest topic for mobile operators almost everywhere in the world and for so many reasons, this post talks mainly about usability and how mobile operators are brining you the web to your mobile

The big challenge for Mobile internet (and the genesis of the elephant metaphor) is the fact that websites were not built to run on small screens, they were also designed with a nice big keyboard and mouse in mind and their demand on bandwidth grows faster than even the rapid deployment of fast mobile networks can keep pace with.

Mobile operators in Australia are overwhelmingly taking the portal approach, (Optus MyZoo, Planet3, Vodafone Live & Telstra Bigpond). There's two main reasons for mobile operators adopting the portal approach. Firstly, quality of service can be guaranteed by your operator if they control the portal, this is something that mobile customers are especially senstitive to.

Secondly and possibly more cynicaly, mobile operators by controlling what you access and how you access it can also control the amount you pay, and the amount that advertisers pay to get onto your tiny little mobile screen. Even more simply, mobile operators don't want to go down the path of ISP's where they become dumb-pipes, providing you with some bandwidth and having nothing more to do with your mobile internet experience.

I do acknowledge here the proliferation in Australia of the '5gb for $29.95' mobile broadband plans but these are confined to the use of a USB modem plugged into your laptop (internet via a mobile network rather than truly mobile internet....though even that vague distinction is blurring).

For handset manufacturers, the problem is quite different. Their relationship with you really ends once you've opened the box (although they'd all like to change that). Therefore the manufacturers are putting their efforts into rendering technology, effectively providing a mobile browser that can tailor a website designed for the 'big screen' to work on your mobile. Nokia does this well, unsurprisingly so does Apple and no doubt Google's android will make major advancements in this area.

For the mobile industry as a group, the focus has been on putting together rules for content development that will make websites work better on the mobile handsets and make it easier for developers to know how to create them. http://www.w3.org/Mobile/

Then there's the ever contraversial .mobi, a new top-level domain created specifically to denote websites that will work on mobiles http://www.mtld.mobi/. Critics of the domain say it is polarising the internet and creating a mobile 'ghetto' rather than a single web that is device/access technology agnostic. Supporters say its the best way of offering a reliable way for all website owners to denote a mobile friendly space, rather than the hit and miss that exists now. Whatever your view, check out the investor list....its the most interesting cross-section of companies working together in this space I've ever seen.

Whatever the answer, the news is good for everybody. Accessing data services on mobile devices is THE trend of the next five years for everybody along the value chain and the direction and opportunities that this will take are very much still up for grabs.