Mobile web dead or just sleeping?
Mowser was a browser that would take sites designed for the web and render them for mobiles, launched last year. I say was, because its founder, Russell Beattie has decided to pull the plug after struggling to find funding.
Aside from his debts, Beattie said on his blog that he decided to stop development on the browser because “I don’t actually believe in the “Mobile Web” anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at best, and dying at worst. I’m talking specifically about sites that are geared 100% towards mobile phones and have little to no PC web presence”.
But Beattie isn’t suggesting that people don’t want to use the mobile web *at all*, just they don’t want to use it when it feels so much worse than a PC browser. The solution to getting more web traffic, he says, is better devices and better browsers. Here here. Perhaps if every phone had a whizzy browser and a big screen, the mobile web would be used everywhere. But given we’re years off mid tier and low tier devices getting such capabilities, if they ever do, is there a way of encouraging mobile web take up in the meantime?
Mowser was/is NOT a browser.
Vlad’s last blog post..Any chance you missed this? (1)
Posted by Vlad on April 16th, 2008 at 1:33 pm.Personally I find it very hard to surf the web using my mobile phone. It just doesn’t have the same “feel”. The screen is too small and I find it hard to move about the screen with the controller. I guess I’m just old-fashioned
Posted by Vending Guy on April 16th, 2008 at 1:48 pm.Yes there is…keep improving mobile websites as browsers improve. It’s about the size of the screen not the capabilities of the browser, always has been. Simple interfaces have actually been very helpful as of late to create interest in mobile usage. Look at m.twitter.com - no ajax there and people are on it all day. For me what’s really a problem in mobile is battery life.
http://blog.crispwireless.com/#post-11
Posted by Tom Limongello on April 16th, 2008 at 2:12 pm.Just recently tried Opera on a bog standard Nokia. works great. I still cynical about usage when you consider the prepay market dynamics here in Europe. I accept the US is moving more towards flat data plans, however at the end of the day I shall always browse better with a PC. Obvious I know..
Posted by Roon on April 16th, 2008 at 2:38 pm.Russell is a great bloke (I’ve never met him bet I’ve read his blogg for years) and I’m sorry to hear he’s pulled the plug. Getting finance is not going to be easy for the next couple of years and that’s just the way it is.
Russell is saying that mobile web is just not up to it and he was saying a few weeks ago that mobile apps were doomed to failure because nobody wants to download anything because of the complication.
I agree that downloading apps is a pain in the arse in most cases mainly because of all of the hoops most developers have to jump through to get an app signed, although that is getting better now.
We have people downloading our app (ShopQwik) everyday and have customers in almost every country in the world (187 at the last count). We haven’t made sales in every country yet but we still do business all over the globe, mainly on the phone. So it can’t be that bad.
I also agree that mobile web / mobile apps need a strong or integrated web presence to go along with the mobile experience and again we have spent most of this year making our website integrated with the phone application. So if you book a flight on the web, the details are accessible from the phone app and if you book on the phone, you can access the booking on our website.
I think this is the way forward. I was in the pub last night and I heard the barmaid told her friend that she had just updated her relationship status… I asked her how she did it and she took out her N95 and said ‘I just did this’….
Brilliant!
I hope to see Russell back soon with something that fly’s for him
Posted by Mark on April 16th, 2008 at 3:44 pm.Ok, I’m half asleep…! The barmaid was updating her status on Facebook and I’m sorry for the grammatical errors… I’m not at my best today!
Posted by Mark on April 16th, 2008 at 3:48 pm.There is a mobile internet device which has a large screen full QWERTY keyboard and displays the the real web just like the experiance you get on your pc. The PocketSurfer2!
Posted by AK on April 17th, 2008 at 9:06 am.It is in the low tier to mid tier device category, comes with its own integarted SIM card and BEST of all free usage! 20 hours every month
How it works, a mobile internet device connected to a mobile network, accesses a proxy server using as the browser and displaying real web pages so no need for WAP.
The Pocketsurfer2 is very fast too, whizzes around the net!