Good set of posts from Ajit and Paul on Mobile Web 2.0:

Ajit writes about Mobile Web 2.0, and what it is in his opinion. Paul writes responds about such definition not real and is all hype. Anders argues that it can't be defined…

And all these disagreements, in my opinion, boils down to timeframes, and thought differences between theory and practice. Remember that “…in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is”, said Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut. Around this I wrote sometime ago The Web 2.0 From a Practical Perspective, which also applies to the Mobile Web.

Paul also writes about other approaches to mobility, such as buddy-centric, which I call people-centric mobile computing, approach on which I believe.

At first, I too argued about Ajit's views (I'm not going to rehash it here), but over time I came to realize that his ideas are about the future, about the potential of Mobile Web, maybe not in a too distant future; time will tell. The Mobile Web will become a predominant form for delivering mobile applications, once the standards and certain browser techniques (see Mobile Web FAQ) become consistent across vendors and handsets.

If we were to talk about mobility and the present, and future as well, Paul is right as well.

At the end, both are right, and the whole discussion really is about timeframes.

Mobile is and will continue to be multi-channel, and people-centric. This is why Java, native, texting, Web, Widgets, and voice and other, are all channels for delivering these mobile experiences and solutions. And, it doesn't matter the delivery “platform” for mobile applications, when talking about handsets, they all will be second to voice…

When talking about mobility, let's always frame the discussion around availability, now vs. future, so that expectations are understood.

ceo