Very good write-up by Paddy summarizing the Mobile 2.0 event.

Paddy makes a very good summary on the current issues/themes in mobility. I will say that the key themes or issues found today are for the most part the same from 5 years ago… really:

  • Platform diversity
  • Thick vs. thin application environments
  • Browser fragmentation
  • User engagement
  • Carrier engagement
  • Standards, content compatibility and content adaptation
  • Adapting vs. mobile-specific content

Paddy mentions service diversity as one of the current themes. Services is not only a current theme, but it is a new theme, where today we have more open/public services that are available on the web vs. before where services were closed/private.

With respect to “Thick vs. thin application environments”, thin applications user experience will continue to get better over time, and this is expected, as a result of improved functionality on the handsets such as better display quality and resolution, higher network speeds, processing power and memory, and as we move forward, better micro-browsers on the client with support for scripting.

Paddy brings as one of the issues with local clients the bad user experience related to configuration and security. I will add that once micro-browsers gain access to native resources and functionality, it is very likely that the same will occur to mobile web applications – there is no way around this, as it is very important to protect native resources such as personal information, or notify the user of actions that result in additional cost. As a side-note I'll add that today many local applications behave that way because they are untrusted, which is why all the security prompts; to avoid such issues, make the applications trusted; but there is a cost associated with this, which is why many are untrusted.

I'm not convinced yet that user-install is a major issue…

  • typing or book-marking a URL to a web application is the same as typing to download a local application
  • a specific application is downloaded once (or a few types if upgrading) but used many times
  • users typically have a limited set of (mobile) application they use
  • amount of memory on handsets continue to grow

So we are still in a state of disarray, and we will for the foreseeable future – no surprise here; if you are creating mobile applications today, web or local, you must deal with all of this. We are past Mobile 1.0 though, but we are not yet in Mobile 2.0; perhaps we are someplace (number) in between…

ceo