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Kevin Rose Mobile Web The Future: I say forget .mobi, iPhone or phone projector

By: Daniel Chubb | November 28, 2007 | 16 Comments

iPhone or phone projector

Many of us know that the mobile web is the future with technology moving on at a fast rate, I have read many articles on the latest technology that gives amazing battery life, projectors, thin e-paper screens and more to mobile devices.

This tells us in an internet world that we will all want to be connected more on the move, viewing web pages on the go has not been that good over the last couple of years. The best device I have ever owned for making phone calls and viewing web pages is the Apple iPhone…its fantastic at it.

I read a post today on Mashable that quotes Kevin Rose (Digg founder) as saying that “mobile web is the next big thing”; I have to agree with the man that would have a very good idea of the future.

My opinion is the mobile web will be the normal web handled much better thanks to technologies such as better software (iPhone), phones will new technology such as phone projectors and e-paper so you can pull out screens that are paper thin.

phone projector

The future in my opinion is not .mobi domains which are designed for mobiles; they are just copies of your same site. The hardware and software is and will become good enough to display web pages as they are (as long as they are designed correctly).

phone-projector-3.jpg

My iPhone lets me view web pages just fine right now; I can zoom in and see pages very clearly with no need for a .mobi domain. Phone projectors and e-ink displays will only improve things.

What are your views on the mobile web and its future?

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  • Martin Jansen

    Well…I hate horizontal scrolling. I love sites especially designed for mobile phones…

    Even though the Iphone has a larger screen than average phones…you still need to scroll horizontal. Or do you expect that the future phone will be laptop size ?

    BTW: It’s not only the optical size that matters…ever thought about download speeds ? And so…not everybody in this world is living in broadband country…

    Martin

  • Daniel

    @ Martin

    Hi, I have to agree with you on the download speeds and people not having Wi-Fi or broadband in their country.

    But for the broadband places of the world (9 out of 10 in UK and most of US), the future phones can have e-paper which is well on its way and projectors.

  • http://www.mtld.mobi Hiya Pooptooth

    I have to correct you. .mobi is being used as a way to signify a mobile compliant site. It has little to do with past, current, or future technology as much as ensuring adaptation to whatever standard ensures a mobile user gets 100% satisfaction 100% of the time. Since any yokel with MS word can hack together a PC site .com gives absolutely ZERO confidence that the site owner has or has had the mobile user in mind when building it. You may twist in the wind for 5 minutes on your phone only to discover that the page, like this one, doesn’t load on a standard phone.

    Let’s use something you can understand. This page
    http://www.product-reviews. net/2007/11/28/kevin-rose- mobile-web-the-future-i-say-forget-mobi-iphone-or-phone-projector/

    gets a ready score of 1/5. That means it will definitely display very poorly on a mobile phone. It’s great that you can pony up $500 for an iPhone, but the other 2 or so BILLION GAZILLION mobile customers may not a) want to, b) think it’s silly to spend that much on a phone, or c) earn $300 a YEAR somewhere.

    So you may be right in the slimmest of senses; .mobi may not be right for you if you are one of the .05% or so that CAN purchase an iPhone and are so blinded by the notion that .mobi could ensure 100% satisfaction while mobile surfing.

  • Daniel

    @Hiya
    I understand that, in fact I was just talking about the cost of the iPhone to a friend a moment ago, also as you said not everyone can buy an iPhone or even want one.

    My answer is that I agree, but also say the iPhone in 2 years will be dirt cheap and as the “future of phones” means everyone would not need .mobi domains if they owned an iPhone or in fact forget the iPhone as many, many phones are coming out now (costing a lot at this time) that view web pages fine on any web page.

    So lets say 2 years down the line, if 80% of phones view web pages fine…why have .mobi Domains at all.

  • Martin Jansen

    @daniel..

    Hi Daniel,

    Broadband 9/10 UK is referring to PC use…not mobile phone use..

    Those speeds are far from the broadband you’re referring to.

    Martin

  • Daniel

    @ Martin

    Very good point you make there, what about all the thousands of hot spots I get to use…everyday I have been out and about in coffee shops and viewing web pages for free (well contract paid) which things will get cheaper in “The Future of phones”.

    I do agree with your points Martin, its just the future we are all talking about.

    .mobi domains are a good idea, but not if most phones and broadband in THE FUTURE is cheap and able to view web pages fine.

  • Martin Jansen

    @Daniel

    Well.. the future decides…but the future is not only our future. Billions of people in countries like India, China, Indonesia etc.. don’t have entrance to the same facilities as we have…but have a mobile phone..

    You got good points..I have mine..
    Let’s wait and see…

    Martin

  • .pH

    The pullout, fold out, flexscreens (as known by many names but all essentially the same function) are indeed a great concept, albeit quite impractical at present and will be for some time.

    Most designs are based on an LCD embedded (sandwiched) between two plastic and mylar sheets. The issue here is durability and longevity.

    And can you imagine the billions of tweens and teens using a mobile device like this? Are you willing to shell out a few hundred bucks for a product who most likely would not stand up to the rigors of daily use by your kids?

    My take on this will be the same as the UMPC…a great idea and concept but basically…who needs em?

    The UMPC is quite the failure by many counts (manufactures and sales clearly show this) and has found a home not in the everyday consumer but in the hands of some traveling business folks. Not quite what MS, Samsung, Sony and the other backers had hoped for.

    A recurring theme that I see over and over and over is this next latest and greatest product to come out is the death of .mobi.

    Are you serious? A product spells the death of a domain extension? that is quite remarkable.

    So a product designed for telecommunications and mobile connectivity is not suitable and worthy of having a domain extension to designate that this site is mobile compliant.

    You are making some grand assumptions of the global population who could really care less about a domain name. Who do you think are the bulk of cell phone users at present? Before you went off to write this wild claim of .mobi not needed, did you do any research on who .mobi is trying to connect with?

    The only ones that this whole .mobi issue seems to be an issue in the first place are domainers. Do you really think a kid surfing on a mobile device is going to give a damn what extension he is using or suddenly freak out when he discovers it is not a .com site he is on? Can you for one minute even begin to grasp the notion that it might just be this 13-25 year old bunch that embrace this new fangled domain as being “theirs” and “not your father’s internet”?

    Step back and get out of the mindset of domain speak and put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. What one domain says mobile internet and mobile site better and clearer than .mobi? So much talk about branding.

    Branding what? The difficult concept that .mobi means mobile? Damn, give 6th and 7th graders more credit than that.

    Give 6th and 7th graders more credit than domainers give each other.

  • Guy

    For me beauty of these mobi sites is they give an absolute guarantee that the site you are going to will be a great viewing experience on any phone with internet access.
    Nothing else can give that.
    The current wacky races with phones is throwing up all sorts of lame phones, including the mad projector phone imo.
    However, the iphone is great and a model or two down line will be even better.
    However third world countries are the biggest users of mobile banking etc and will not see these types of phones for years. The whole mobil;e internet is in a bit of a mess at minute and new potential users are put off by the anarchy.
    .mobi seems to be an obvious cure to some of the anarchy. Think could work well hand in hand with other solutions. I think will take off very big.

  • sactown

    Where do you project a display in a car, on the train or while walking?

    Does the whole world have an iPhone? Will Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, LG, Sony, BlackBerry etc just fold up and die because of the iPhone? Hardly.

    The .mobi brand is growing and taking hold. It’s coding requirements provide for a web experience for the vast majority of devices but it is not limited to that experience. It’s a branding proposition associated with making web content friendly to mobile devices. A better mobile device doesn’t render .mobi useless, just as a better PC won’t render .com useless.

  • JETTRAY

    some people know what they are talking about and some don’t…. you fall in the don’t category.
    .mobi is great.Your the guy who is sitting in traffic while we fly down the carpool lane.See ya later.

  • http://themagnumgroup.net/ Lucky Balaraman

    Your point is well-taken. But as one of the other commenters has said, scrolling to the right is a consummate pain.

    Very often this cannot be avoided because of 468 pixel-wide graphics in the site’s header…

  • http://lottoluck.mobi dotmobi user

    If you have an iphone like my daughter you should know that .mobi sites are much faster to load and easier to read unless the whole world gets big screen cellphones overnight .mobi is the solution. this debate reminds me of the people who use to lug laptops around and say why do i want to go to a small screen for the internet. th big corporations are putting up sites ie bofa.mobi bank of america and are getting huge traffic because most peoples phones can access this simple site and check bank accounts. thanks and good luck

  • http://www.forumchat.mobi MrMobi

    Do I really need to say anything else? Surely it’s clear the .mobi ext is the future,iphone or whatever your device the configured .mobi format is quicker and cheaper as stated. The facts are overwhelming,so get over your .mobi bashing and just deal with it! .com is what it is and .mobi is what IT will be.

  • MobiJ

    My college friends and I are taking .mobi and using it for our OWN projects. We see a great opportunity to build websites for mobile users in mind because the mobile market is simply HUGE and there are many many ways to contribute. I couldn’t care a less about DOT FRIGGIN COM, I was like 2 months old when the first .com domain was registered!!! All these OLD domainers telling everyone to ONLY deal with .com ARE ONLY SAYING THAT BECAUSE THEY OWN ALL THE GOOD ONES and are making a ton of cash from them! They think they are untouchable but that is their weakness. I congratulate all of them for what they have acheived…more importantly I congratulate the webdevelopers out there that actually built the Internet as we see it today…but this is a CHANGING world guys and girls! It’s evolving! The younger generation can learn how to type .mobi instead of .com NO PROBLEMO! TRUST ME!!! Im not saying that .com is going anywhere…ON THE CONTRARY…what i am saying is that .mobi is going to take advantage of the mobile web, even more so than .com…WHY? U ASK, BECAUSE *MY GENERATION* SAYS SO, U GET ME?

    NOTHING…I REPEAT…NOTHING, SAYS MOBILE LIKE .MOBI DOES!!! (IN TERMS OF DOMAIN EXTENSIONS OF COURSE, LOL).

    The internet as we are seeing right here right now is made for people SITTING in front of their computer screen…They have time on their hands!

    WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE….MOBILE (ON THE GO) USERS DONT NECESSARILY WANT PC STYLE WEB BROWSING!

    The weakness in their argument is that people have LEARNT to type in .com…BUT ONE PROBLEM… The .com sites they are seeing now ARE NOT THE SAME AS .MOBI SITES! I REPEAT…THEY ARE NOT!!!!!!!! THE SAME!!!!!!! and i quote “they are just copies of your same site”…this is NOT true. Sure, they CAN be copies of some OLD .com site, BUT DO THEY HAVE TO BE???

    Dont even get me started on the iPhone…scrolling up down left right…zooming…blah blah blah. Sure it’s cool to be able to visit your average PC sites on a mobile device BUT ISNT IT *COOLER* TO VISIT NEW, FRESH, MOBI SITES THAT FIT YOUR MOBILE SCREEN AND OFFER *NEW* AND EXCITING WAYS TO BROWSE THE *WEB* WHILST *ON THE GO*!?!

    We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I personally am very excited with some of our MOBILE projects.

    I TELL YOU THIS MY .MOBI FRIENDS…WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN!

    If the big companies see the MASSIVE amount of interest .mobi is creating, they WILL DEFINITELY JUMP ON BOARD! They couldn’t care a less about whether it’s a dot com, .co.uk, .de, .net, etc., domain or not.

    NOTHING SAYS *MOBILE* LIKE .MOBI DOES! .MOBI ALSO SAYS ON THE GO, ON THE MOVE, FITS YOUR MOBILE SCREEN, NO ZOOMING, NO SCROLLING, NO PROBLEMS, FAST, EFFICIENT, NO BULL S*IT!

    CAN THAT BE SAID FOR ANY OTHER DOMAIN EXTENSION???????????????????

    WORK HARD, BUILD .MOBI SITES NOW!!!! WE CAN MAKE FAR FAR MORE MONEY FORM THIS MOBILE WEB THAN ANY NORMAL DAY JOB CAN OFFER…BUT ITS NOT JUST ABOUT MONEY…ITS ABOUT CREATING SOMETHING THAT POTENTIALLY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WORLDWIDE CAN USE…SHARE YOUR TALENTS WITH EVERYONE WHO HAS A MOBILE DEVICE WITH INTERNET CAPABILITIES :)

    PEACE, LOVE, RESPECT TO ALL!

    MobiJ

  • Gary

    I was going to post on my thoughts on projector phones & roll up screens but I think the above posts have done my job for me… they are a novelty to all but 1% of mobile web users & will remain so for quite some time.

    PH stated a perfect case for .mobi vs .com….
    .com is just so yesterday, grandad – so get over it! ;-)

    .mobi sites can look great on big screens as well as the smallest screens…. it is a global TLD & universal (for every device on the planet)

    Dead?? It’s not even christened yet….

    .com it just sounds so 1990′s don’t you think? ;-)