mTrends - mobile media lifestyle trends - m-trends.org

Is the Mobile Web slowly leaving its’ infancy? Or is this really a start of something big coming our way? Googling the “mobile web” gives us 1.920.000 results, that’s pretty convincing something is happening. Using terms such as ‘mobile web‘ to ‘Mobile Web 2.0‘ and ‘Mobile 2.0‘ has raised many discussions amongst colleague bloggers; with the introduction of the iPhone, Steve Jobs introduced the ‘real internet’ on a portable device, so it’s really still an ongoing discussion… One thing we all do agree on is that’s it’s all about the world wide web becoming accessible on mobile devices, initiating a new wave of ‘next generation mobile services’.

Informa Telecoms and Media had the bright idea to gather some of the best thinkers and doers in this field and organize a real summit called the Mobile Web 2.0 Conference on 18-19 September 2007 in London.

Do check the agenda of the 2-day conference, the speakers line-up is really impressive: participations include web companies such as Yahoo, Skype, Amazon (Jeff Barr!); speakers from MNO’s including 3, O2, T-Mobile International, BT Global Services, Telia Sonera, Orange, Vodafone; by now well-known startups such as Shozu, AdMob, MyStrands, Eyeka, Widsets, Tariq Krim of Netvibes, in a unique mix including a lot of blog pals who explored the Mobile Web possibilities since it’s inception, like Daniel Appelquist, Ajit Jaokar, Tomi T Ahonen, Tom Hume and Russell Buckley, definately a unseen line-up so far of industry experts dedicated exclusively around the Mobile Web 2.0 topic in Europe.

Lots of essential topics will be covered, such as:

• Examine the impact of Mobile Web 2.0 on traditional mobile and web business models: Interaction of web, mobile, media, broadcast and telecom spheres
• Discover what services will bring Mobile Web 2.0 to life for the mass market
• Discuss how user interface strategies and widgets facilitate discoverability
• Determine market demand for mobile communities across global markets and demographic segments and understand how to capture target audiences
• Pool experiences of existing challenges to user experience and drive browser and device solutions
• Mobilise the Long-Tail to enable the move of Web 2.0 applications to mobile
• Determine who will own the user’s digital footprint

I have been invited to do a talk on the Mobile Web 2.0 Start-up Ecosystem, one of the topics I have been researching on an ongoing basis since I started this blog. Here’s what I will focus on for my talk at the conference:

• Integrating mobility: what mobility features are start-ups concentrating on?
• Where do we see new start-ups : Who is investing in what?
• How do Mobile Web 2.0 propositions differentiate?
• Evaluating new propositions: showcase of launches in recent months

So, to any start-up who recently launched and who is active in the Mobile Web 2.0 space, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me (click my name in top of my sidebar) to share your experiences, who knows you might become a showcase in my presentation

Note there’s also a pre-conference workshop on ‘Understanding Mobile Web 2.0′ the day before the event. To create discussion and to give delegates an idea of what to expect at the event, the organizers also launched a conference blog. Ajit Jaokar - who recently came to explain his views on the topic at MobileMonday Barcelona will be interviewing conference speakers and will post more thoughts on this blog.

I’m really looking forward to this one!

After a blog-break of more than a year Russell Beattie started to blog again. Here’s a link to his old blog if you want to read some essential stuff on the mobile and web convergent evolution of the last years, but now he’s back starting from scratch again here:

“I’ve been floating around the edges of a starting new blog for a while now, and I think the time has arrived for me to jump into the fray again. Actually, Diego is the one that inspired me tonight - his fifth blog anniversary is today (July 11th) and he’s starting a new one up at better named http://blog.diegodoval.com . That finally pushed me over the top, and I decided to just do it.” (…)

Russ starts off with a post called i-Dot Thoughts, on the “full web browser” and “mobile-specific browsers”, on the .mobi and the Safari iPhone approach in short, a topic Daniel and myself wrote on this weekend.

FYI: Russ is also working on a new project called Mowser (short for ‘mobile browser’), give it a try if you can!

It’s great to have you back, Russ!

I know how mTrends looks great on a PSP and on a Nokia N800; I haven’t seen my blog however on the iPhone, but I suppose it looks ok - the iPhone features Safari, the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device.

UPDATE => Kelly sended me some shots of mTrends on the iPhone, looks pretty cool, I cannot see from the screenshots if all my sidebar widgets work and if the feed subscription functionality works automatically in the mobile Safari browser… Anyway thanks, Kelly!

Since it’s going to take a while before everyone is able to buy an iPhone, and before device manufacture competitors catch up with Apple, browsing the Mobile Web stays somehow a non-standardised fragmented experience for most people. I have been writing about this confusion before, now it was kind of weird reading this ’strikethrough’ story from Scobleizer on how the iPhone gets confused with the mobile version of the Google Reader. Note that the Safari browser shows the desktop web pages - the ‘real’ internet, as most people know it; Robert just got confused with the different - mobile web - URL’s to browse to.

Now both ways to acces the internet will most probably have to live next to eachother on mobile devices since no real solution is in sight to converge the mobile web as ‘one real web’. There’s the ‘full’ browsing experience possible on the high-end devices like the iPhone, PSP’s and for example the Nokia N800 and then there are the ‘adaptive’ browsers that will adapt at it’s best the existing web page to your phone, like Nokia S60, Openwave and Opera browsers and others like Google Mobile transcoding normal web pages so they fit the mobile screen.

But what about the Mobile Web users?

To my view there are 4 different types of mobile web users to distinguish (some with a combined use), people who:

1. want to read their favourite feeds (through mobile browser or standalone applications)
2. browse websites and pages (using Nokia, Opera Mini or Safari browser on the mobile)
3. search from within a browser using Google Mobile, Yahoo! oneSearch, …
4. use standalone apps/tools to connect to people or communities like Jaiku, Twitter, Fring, Google Mobile Maps, etc…

Currently I use 1 and 4 the most, since browsing the web on the mobile is simply still too annoying and slow and searching on my phone not context relevant for me as it is now; I read feeds and use standalone apps to connect to people and find locations, that’s it. With the coming of more and more webapps, RSS tools and communities going mobile the coming months - YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Netvibes, and alikes - some of them already there - the ways to get to those apps will become even more diverse, not to mention about how to handle correctly Mobile SEO.

For a simplified any (txt) feed ‘works on any device’ solution there’s still the real pre-cursor of the Mobile Web, Winksite. David Harper writes in this Love the Mobile Web post, how Winksite makes it easy to publish mobile Internet sites and build simple mobile connections via mobile phones:

“Winksite is the first standards compliant mobile Website builder that also includes RSS-driven content deployment and mobile-tuned community features such as forum, chat, and polls. This approach delivers fresh content, fast-loading screens, and universally accessible community features to you and your audience. The Winksite service is a free and fully hosted solution. No software install on your phone is necessary to view a Winksite powered mobile site. Learn more about how it works.”

I’ve had mTrends on Winksite since a while now just because my blog was always accesible on most phones, now for anyone who wants his internet blog or pages to be displayed correctly and available on ANY phone, I think Winksite is still the best option. Check below how MobileOK my Winksite blog is using the dotMobi’s MobiReady Report generator.

BTW: great tool! I like the way it displays information on pricing and speed of different networks to acces your mobile web pages.

To close this post, I would like to add this paragraph from Dave’s post on The mobile Web is not just for phones anymore:

“Gamers and their WiFi connected version of the Internet have been largely ignored by Mobile & Web 2.0 publishing and community platforms. We’re changing that. Whatever you choose to build at Winksite will now be served up optimized and fully functioning to the Sony PSP browser and Nintendo DS Lite Opera browser over WiFi connections. With the DS-Lite in mind we provide a fast loading and readable version while in overview mode. The PSP is delivered a version that eliminates the horizontal scrolling (and reduces the vertical scrolling) required to read posts and chat with your friends.”

Right attitude, Dave. Keep going!

What about you? I’m interested in your experiences and opinions

While we Europeans might seem envious not being able to get hold of an iPhone immediately, there’s really no reason to be; having a little bit of patience might be beneficial for Apple to learn how people will use the iPhone and for the users to get hold of an improved version in a couple of months.

Don’t get me wrong: while I’m pretty convinced that the web browsing experience on the iPhone is probably the best ever created on a mobile device, there’s also something as being able to acces the content from wherever you are, and this seems to be a minor point of the iPhone - currently only available through AT&T EDGE network, don’t miss Carlo ’s interesting take on this aspect.

FYI: above screenshot taken on a Nokia N95 when browsing the www.apple.com/iphone website, no photoshopping involved