NYT: Mobile Web Isn’t There Yet

The New York Times posted an accurate analysis of the state of the mobile Web, essentially saying that while it’s come a bit of a way, it’s no where near acceptable for the vast majority of users.

We’ve seen the mobile WAP standard fail, which this author has written a column about in the past (and has another column that should be up any day now). It seems that the iPhone is pointing the way to the future, but there are many hurdles to overcome, such as the fact that no phone today displays Macromedia Flash pages properly.

“People talk about the mobile Web, and it’s just assumed that it’ll be a replica of the desktop experience,” Nathan Eagle, an M.I.T. researcher, said in the article. “But they’re fundamentally different devices.” He says he thinks that the basic Web experience for most of the world’s three billion cellphones will never involve trying to thumb-type Web addresses or squint at e-mail messages. Instead, he says, it will be voice-driven. “People want to use their phone as a phone,” he says.

For now, widespread use of the mobile Web remains both far off and inevitable, the article said; we couldn’t agree more.

Mobile Web: So Close Yet So Far [NYT]

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