Mobile Web: So Close Yet So Far
Michael Fitzgerald’s piece on the mobile phone revolution has a very interesting and moderately concealed challenge for all the practitioners of the current web models for content and advertising. – “Don’t assume it’s business as usual”. . . as if we ever would! He rightly points to the false starts and many users of current web browsers on their traditional handsets can readily attest to this.
It seems like we are at the tipping point of the next surge. Already trueffect is seeing and serving ever increasing users of mobile devices. Interestingly we have seen a monthly doubling of ads to iPhones as users surf away using relatively traditional techniques. Fitzgerald also calls out Nokia’s investments in the space though he misses the N800 product as the potential standard bearer. Unlike the iPhone the N800 runs on Linux and supports things like Skype, Flash and soon all the content that was on the Palm OS. Given Nokia’s expertise in “voice” the ability to use verbal not text commands would not be a stretch.
It will then come down to who will pay for it. At that point we are back to the three-legged stool of publishing; 1) Great content attracts 2) A great audience 3) Which attracts great advertisers. Maybe this time we can come up with a little more imaginative advertising vehicle than a banner!
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