Mobile-Internet convergence
April 11th, 2007 , by amitagwlLots of companies, VCs and investors are betting big on mobile phone web users. With the increasing smart phones and iPhones, the bet is getting bigger and bigger. I have my own apprehensions around it. How many people really surf web over their blackberries, N73s or jazzy samsung smart phones? I do not know many who do that. I never do it. The reasons are many. Few of them are:
- Small Screen: The screen is way too small and the web content is not designed with this screen in mind. All the CSS or mobile pages look like a patch up. Unless the whole content is designed keeping in mind the mobile users, it is never going to be a good user experience.
- Speed: With all the new jargons and buzzwords(CDMA, 3G, 4G, EDGE, EVDO), the speed on mobile devices is still pathetic. Try to surf few content heavy websites and you will know what I am talking about.
- Input Components: We do not only read news on internet, we check stock quotes, write email, post comments, search vendors, see maps, process information and all of this is not a very pleasant experience. QWERT keyboards on smart phones did help to a certain extent but the touch technology needs to improve as well. iPhone with its multi-touch technology might improve things a bit.
- Fully functional websites: Content providers expose rather restricted features and capabilities on mobile websites. Content creators need to invest more time innovating on how to make a website fully functional for mobile users.
Unless all of these things are addressed in the mobile devices, the convergence is going to be a distant dream. With the mobile phone users growing 4-5 times faster than PC users, it becomes even more important to address all these concerns.
