Comments on: “Is the Mobile Web Dead?” – enough already! http://www.eclecticguy.com/2008/04/15/is-the-mobile-web-dead-enough-already/ musings of just some guy Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:21:53 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: James http://www.eclecticguy.com/2008/04/15/is-the-mobile-web-dead-enough-already/comment-page-1/#comment-326 James Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:11:34 +0000 http://eclecticguy.com/2008/04/15/is-the-mobile-web-dead-enough-already/#comment-326 Yeah - so only as much as the "web was dead" in 1995 when the browsers were poor, modems were expensive, there wasn't much content, and the on-line world was ruled by the business models of AOL and Compuserve. 40 years ago we sat around a lonely radio in the living room to listen to recorded music. Now music is everywhere, pervasive, er, mobile. The web is no different. Today's lonely sedentary web experience is directly analogous to our forbears sitting in the corner of a room to listen to music. But the web wants to be everywhere, pervasive, er, mobile. Its gradual untethering - to become the mobile web - is inevitable. 10 years, and we'll think it hilarious that we ever thought differently. (I hope no-one doubts it simply because of the parochial business models and power struggles of today's current ecosystem.) So yes, I think you're right in your analysis. The rise and rise of sites that are made-for-mobile (indeed, even made-for-iPhone) have already busted the myth that a browser's ability to render any type of markup means that the user on the other side of the screen (a human!) will actually be getting what they want. If a mobile human is equally satisfied by a service that was designed for a non-mobile human, then it can only be by chance. That's when the mobile web will really excel: when people start to treat it as the unique, ubiquitous medium that it really is - rather than some poor pastiche of their current comfort zone. Yeah – so only as much as the “web was dead” in 1995 when the browsers were poor, modems were expensive, there wasn’t much content, and the on-line world was ruled by the business models of AOL and Compuserve.

40 years ago we sat around a lonely radio in the living room to listen to recorded music. Now music is everywhere, pervasive, er, mobile.

The web is no different. Today’s lonely sedentary web experience is directly analogous to our forbears sitting in the corner of a room to listen to music. But the web wants to be everywhere, pervasive, er, mobile.

Its gradual untethering – to become the mobile web – is inevitable. 10 years, and we’ll think it hilarious that we ever thought differently.

(I hope no-one doubts it simply because of the parochial business models and power struggles of today’s current ecosystem.)

So yes, I think you’re right in your analysis.

The rise and rise of sites that are made-for-mobile (indeed, even made-for-iPhone) have already busted the myth that a browser’s ability to render any type of markup means that the user on the other side of the screen (a human!) will actually be getting what they want.

If a mobile human is equally satisfied by a service that was designed for a non-mobile human, then it can only be by chance.

That’s when the mobile web will really excel: when people start to treat it as the unique, ubiquitous medium that it really is – rather than some poor pastiche of their current comfort zone.

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