I hear about the “mobile web” a lot, and that makes me think about it all the time. The great NewNet session that GigaOM had yesterday was filled with such great conversation around the mobile web that I had visions of it dancing in my head last night, when I should have been sleeping. This morning I have arrived at the firm conclusion that the mobile web doesn’t exist. Now before you shout “heretic” hear out why I believe the mobile web is dead.
You’ve heard mention of the mobile web, I am certain. The mobile web is that web in the cloud that we tap into when we’re out and about. It can be when we’re traveling, or running around town, pretty much anywhere besides sitting in front of our main computer. It is the web we access when we are mobile, which makes sense. And I am convinced it is dead.
Sure, we are accessing the web while mobile more than ever before. That’s not in question. What has changed about that access is our expectations. We expect, no we demand, that the web we access on the go is the same web we access at our main computers. We want the same experience, the same content, the same rich environment, whether we access it at our desks or while mobile.
In the beginning, there was the web. It was largely only accessible to us at work, through giant computers. Then the web spilled over to the home, and it was the same web as the work web. We learned to expect the web to be the same, no matter where we accessed it, which was limited to work and the home.
Then the web started spilling over onto our mobile devices, mostly the phone. The experience was terrible, as the mobile web in the beginning was limited to the technology of the time. Slow connections, tiny screens with horrible interfaces; the mobile web sucked. Companies dealt with these limits by designing mobile web sites, with terrible content and even worse interfaces. These extremely limited web sites, coupled with the limited mobile phone capabilities, made for a web experience that shared nothing with the “real” web.
Then mobile technology started advancing at a rapid pace, and the devices and the platforms they used got really good. Companies were quick to realize this and started concentrating on making the web experience into something we really liked. It got enjoyable to use the mobile web, and productive, too. That’s when the game started changing, and in a big way.
The explosion of the popular social networks has been due to good mobile technology, as much as anything. Consumers found the web experience to be really good, almost as good as the “real” web, and they flocked to the social networks in droves. The mobile scene changed, with full web experiences not only expected, but demanded.
We demand full web access with our mobile devices, with no compromises. Mobile devices must have web browsers that offer the full web. We demand the ability to access our web information, watch video, listen to music and access our social networks. We expect the mobile web to be the real web. That is why the mobile web is dead. There is no longer room for a subset of the web for mobile access. It’s the real web, no matter where we are, that we crave and expect. And companies in the web business better realize that the mobile web is dead. Give us the real web, or get out of the way.
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2009\/10\/20\/the-mobile-web-is-dead\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_f074938fca506b9dee96c91c0c2c2d10","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}