mobile

The iphone app store is the AOL (think AOL 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, etc) of the mobile web.

I hate the iPhone… no, really I hate the iPhone app platform. Why? Because it’s pushing the mobile web backwards and is a walled garden. It’s terrible.

The promise of the web, and the mobile web, as I see it, is the openness of building on a single platform accessible to all. You can - for the most part - access the same sites on Firefox as you can on Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, and Opera.

Imagine if I told you that you couldn’t read my blog unless you had a certain computer using a certain browser… and even then you potentially had to pay for it. It sounds archaic and idiotic, and it sounds like the iphone app store.

Building for closed platforms, and making programs that are not universally accessible, stifles innovation by limiting the number of participants. I can’t believe the amount of hype that the iPhone app store gets, when it’s terrible for the mobile web.

I’ve been against the premise of platforms since the Facebook platform started - that seems to have killed itself off, and I can only hope that the same happens to the iPhone app store. I’m hoping that more developers start to act like Google in the world of mobile, but even that strategy requires the right browser.

Mobile is still an odd animal, in that not all mobile phones can the same technologies and browsers do vary widely based on your phone. However, the problem of unequal capability does not go away by building for a closed platform… it goes away by building for open browsers that work on multiple platforms… like skyfire, or android’s browser (eventually, at least that’s what we’re told). You don’t have to look any further than Microsoft to see the problems that occur, and lack of innovation that happens, when everyone focuses on building for one closed platform.

I want a dual screen phone that flips out like the g1 keyboard, and a keyboard that pops out beneath the first screen. No camera, limited software and a powerful set of web apps. Doesn’t really exist, does it? And there’s a chance it never will. Not that I don’t think the technology is available or will be soon (we’ll see about the dual screen - but I think mobile web use demands it). The reason I don’t see it happening is not because of the things I want, it’s because of my inability to remove the things I don’t want.

I think the mobile device industry could use a few lessons from PC manufacturers. Mobile phones are quickly becoming more like computers than phones, and it seems like much of the same missteps from the early (and not so early) history of the PC are being repeated. We know how things will play out, so why not skip ahead?

For example, Dell lets you build custom PCs, so why can’t I build a custom smart phone? When will this become the model for mobile devices? I think it eventually will be, but it seems far away. You can’t even pick your phone and your network independently at this point. The road-map I see for the future of mobile devices looks a lot like the past of the PC, but hopefully without some of the missteps and few less steps to get to the end goal. A few things need to happen first.

1. Stop the nonsense of phone and network linkage. This will be tough. Right now networks give huge discounts on phones for locking into their service. Theoretically if you remove this link you remove the discounts, but that’s not necessarily true. If you removed at&t’s monopoly on the iPhone, let consumers buy the phone and then let them choose the carrier, carrier’s would need to offer even larger discounts for new users - derived from the fear of consumer choice and non-exclusive agreements leading to loss in customers. This would lead networks to compete on their true assets - network strength and pricing plans.

2. The field of operating systems needs to be slimmed down. Too many proprietary systems are hanging around that do nothing but frustrate users with quirky conventions. Unless the web is the platform then we need some interoperability and that’s really best done through limiting the number of OSes available. This will either be done through competition and demand for an OS - which is being created with blackberry, android, mac, and to a lesser extent winmo - or by removing the OS element altogether (see #4).

3. Don’t treat the mobile web differently. There is no mobile web in the future. There is only one web accessible through different mediums. This is why I want the second screen. While working on my samsung ace is acceptable, and the G1 and iPhone are better, there is still much to be done on the hardware side of things before we can reach a point of integration that doesn’t require development of mobile and non-mobile properties. And it’s not just a matter of zoom in / out. Skyfire, for example, is a fix not a solution. A solution will have to come in the form of hardware.

4. Forget the OS. Number 2 is sort of an interim step that seems unavoidable given the current players in the market. But how far are we from having an always connected phone that can run web apps and store everything in the cloud, leaving minimal need for android, apple, winmo or any other specific OS.

5. Let me build it. I started with this point and I don’t think i’m alone in wondering why this isn’t a reality. It may have something to do with number 1 and the unnecessary meddling of networks in the handset business. I feel that it is akin to promoters and musicians, a relationship which faces a similar fate. In today’s society of high demand for customization and access to information this relationship won’t take as long to die. On the other hand, there is a definite cost factor - one that even has Dell changing direction - but one that could be lucrative - as it was for Dell in previous years.

There’s more that need to be done - especially on points like mobile payment - but all of the pieces need to fall into place before the promise of the mobile web can be realized.

Web >> Lull >> Web 2.0 >> Lull 2.0? >> Web 3.0?

I think we’ve hit a wall. Not that I haven’t said this before, but I think my viewpoint has changed a little. Before when I complained about an innovation downturn it was based on a lack of independent startups that I found to be interesting (there are plenty of good independents - but I still haven’t seen a lot of great ones lately). The problem as I see it now, is with a general sense of contentment with the largest “Web 2.0″ sites.

The problem with moving from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 is that people just generally don’t care. They don’t think Google is broken, they don’t think Facebook is broken and generally they don’t care about the difference between machine readable and machine understandable. The difference between machine readable and machine understandable is the key difference in Web 2.0 and web 3.0 (well at least in one generally accepted understanding of 3.0) - if there isn’t demand, it’s tough to get supply. Most entrepreneurs, in my opinion, are focused on getting quick run away success with a quick exit. Tough to get quick run away success if people aren’t craving what you’re making.

I understand wanting to see some gain from the time put into your endeavor, but if we keep focusing on the same things we can’t move forward. It seems people have gotten used to using a certain set of web apps/sites and aren’t really looking for anything new. So, developers keep making the same things and making incremental gains. This has lead to an overall downturn - a downturn in innovation and not surprisingly a downturn in financial investment. We’re seeing small ideas, not big ideas. There’s a general sense of what people like and startups make copies and incremental changes.

I know I say this every five posts or so - but it’s not all gloom. There are some things that are exciting to me right now. Chief among them: mobile and microformats. The mobile web is really starting to take off - I honestly believe that personal web browsing (not business) will be conducted more on mobile devices than computers within 5 years. Microformats are exciting… or at least they could be. I’m excited about companies that are trying to interpret them, not those that are merely adding them to their sites (though that is important too). A downturn may even be good for the web. If the possibility of financial gain decreases, fewer people will try to create me-too startups and those that are creating truly innovative applications will once again stand out.

Of course, there is a chance that mobile and microformats really won’t take off. If you would have asked most people what they thought the next big wave in the web would be after the first crash my guess is most would not have said social applications.

What do you think? Is innovation slowing? Is it good?

Last week for my “Quick Idea” I did a post on sending a text message to find free wi-fi. Since then I’ve found a couple of ways that currently exist to attack the problem. These seem to be the best:

4Info
How it works: Register your cell phone number at www.4INFO.net, send a text message to 4INFO (44636) with the word “wifi”, a space, and then either a zip code or a city name. You will receive one or more text messages back with the locations listed with address.

Hotspotr.com or m.hotspotr.com on your phone
This is just a list of hotspots, both free and paid, that does have a mobile friendly version. No text messaging though.

ilovefreewifi
This one would be my favorite, if it delivered on what Lifehacker promised. It is a community driven site where people list places with free wifi. Lifehacker did a write up in which it depicts the service as almost exactly what I had hoped for in last weeks post. It claims that you can send it a text and get a list of places w/code back, that then you reply with for more info - the problem is, this doesn’t seem to be communicated anywhere on the site. Oh… and if you live in the Cleveland area (which I still kind of do for a few more days) then you only have 2 spots to choose from and the service is more or less pointless, unless you start adding wifi spots.

That’s a lot more than I knew last week, which is just one more reason for me to continue doing the “Quick Ideas” posts - but this weeks may be a little different in that I will likely take on the idea in the next week or so…

So yesterday I said I had a big bag of new sites to blog about after my little hiatus, and today I give you a site that has its focus elsewhere. In fact the focus is reaching people when they’re not online. TextMarks, launched not that long ago and it has received some attention, but not enough. The concept is simple, people subscribe to a keyword by sending a text message with the keyword to 41411. After that, the owner of the keyword can send out a mass message to all of the people that have subscribed.

I like the service because it is amazingly easy to sign up for and use, and delivers an extremely clear message. I’m pretty sure Mozes is competing in this space, but I’m never really sure what Mozes is all about. Mozes really should have the edge, it is well designed (though I hear slanted stripes are on their way out) and has a musical slant with plenty of influencers on board. But, I’m still not sure what it’s about.

I guess there are two ways to view these services. 1 - they’re for people that are always connected to a group and want updates all the time or 2 - they’re for people in groups that don’t associate with each other all that often. I’m using TextMarks for purpose number 2 - at least in my first usage of it. I’ve been delegated the task of updating my old high school class website, and to me that’s pointless because no one ever goes to the thing. All we want are the occasional messages to tell us what’s going on. For that TextMarks will work great - so would a blog, but my guess is a lot more people would want this info to come from a text rather than an RSS feed (and I don’t have to explain that your MyYahoo page is made of RSS feeds).

Update: Dorrian from Mozes posted a couple of comments that are worth reading if you’re interested in this area.

Update: I am now fully back to bloglines, but to be fair Google Reader does have a mobile version which I said that it did not.

A great weekend in Chicago has brought a decision in the new reader contest - I’m switching back to Bloglines. In the end the “m” was the the difference - as in m.bloglines.com. I don’t think any of the other contestants have a mobile version. I wasn’t in Chicago for any business or school purpose, I didn’t really want to think about web stuff for one weekend, so I left my laptop at home; having mobile bloglines, mobile gmail, lopico mobile marks (though I never got to go to the place I bookmarked), and motask I could get pretty much everything done that I needed to - and those that I couldn’t I put on motask. Mobile is becoming more and more essential for me as the way I work evolves. In mobile things need to be simple, quick, and they have to work. Rojo has a nice feature set but all I really want is a way to read when ever and where ever, for that Bloglines seems to be the clear winner.

Sidenote on Chicago: I don’t know what number trip this was to Chicago, but I finally tried a Chicago Style hot dog, though I couldn’t get the GF to have one I found it delicious. The city is one of my favorites, and a place I’d like to call home someday - just need one of those ‘real job’ things.

Is anyone really surprised by ESPN Mobile’s failure?? Think about it, to whom was this targeted? A very small niche to be sure. You might say that it is targeted to men - a very large niche, but you can’t just target men when it comes to mobile phones. Lets take me for example, I use Sprint my girlfriend uses Sprint therefore we get to call each other anytime without any effect to either plan. If I switched to ESPN mobile.. no such luck. So, unless you can get the female to switch to a new network that allows free calling to ESPN the male won’t switch either.

I’ve been in this relationship for over 4 years so maybe the target is men that are not married or in serious relationships - the niche gets smaller, it becomes single guys. It feels like a long time since I could call myself a truly single guy but I think I remember the things I did back then - most of which did not involve surfing the internet on my cell phone. More importantly I look at my friends that are about my age and single, and I don’t see them surfing the web on their phones. Most of the time they are at work (where they have computers), at their apartments (where they have computers), or out with their friends (and if there’s an important enough sporting event, they are at bars, where ESPN is on TV). So when, would these guys enjoy mobile ESPN? I suppose the ones that don’t have to drive to work could enjoy it when they are on their walk or ride to work, but is that enough to justify the switch?? Most Americans don’t use the mobile internet or really even know about it, and some that have find the experience very limiting.

Now the niche again gets limited to single guys that love sports and use the internet on their phones. That’s pretty small but maybe there are some that would go for it. But there’s one more qualification: they have to be in the market for a new phone and new provider. Most everyone I know gets sucked in to a two year contract, myself included, so I’m not really looking for a new provider just because a new provider came out.

The niche keeps getting smaller and I haven’t really gotten to the worst flaw. What does ESPN know about being a mobile provider?? If I’m in that group that is in the market for a “new” provider I’m going to go with one that I know I can rely on. I’m going to chose the provider with the best service - what does anyone know about ESPN mobile in terms of service?? Nothing.

So now we have a complete look at who the typical Mobile ESPN niche customer was:

• A sports fan that
• uses the mobile internet
• Is in the market for a new phone
• Is most likely single, and
• Is willing to take a chance on an unproven network

And somehow it failed.

What better to do on a friday than make RSS feeds. Today I added RSS to motask and Lopico.

Motask’s RSS is limted because of privacy regarding to-do lists, you can only get the feed to work properly as a live bookmark. Perhaps more importantly, I also added RSS to Lopico Reviews. I did this to make it easier for businesses owners to find out when their business has been reviewed.

It seems like I’ve been blogging for a while, but this actually marks post number 100 for me on this blog (at least according to wordpress - which I think counts other pages such as this one). Anyway, let’s celebrate. As I did with the new Lopico, I’m going to give my loyal readers a sneak peak at my new site which will launch within the next week (the latest it will be is the 18th). Motask, which I’ve been hinting at since I started creating it on Aug 28th, is a very simple mobile task manager. You may be thinking that 2 weeks is not a very long time to work on an app before pushing it out, but actually my total work time is something more like 10 hours, it’s just that simple of a program.

I use it all of the time, and for me it just makes sense. I tend to split my work between 2 computers (more like 3 since I run linux and windows on one of them) and spend a lot of time away from my computers as well, having a task management solution that is everywhere that I am has been a great experience. After I started writing the program I did come across one pretty good alternative, but found it too complex for the small screen - hence the focus on simplicity. I really like it and hope that you will too. I have a few more things to do (mainly emails) before I can go ahead with a full launch, but for now if you’d like to try it out you can start at http://www.motask.com/demo.php from there you can just play with it or follow the links to create an account.

What about a business model you ask? I’m pretty new to the mobile game so I really think that I need to get a better feel for the market before rushing to the business model. I can imagine one or two models emerging from this, if it gains any traction, but for now just enjoy it… I also wouldn’t be opposed to selling it.

- J.D. Amer

Am I missing it? Google Analytics is my analytics program of choice, but I don’t think that I’ll be able to use it for my new web app. Why? Becuase it’s mobile and Google doesn’t seem to address the mobile analytics market. I use my new program at least 10 times per day on my phone, yet Google doesn’t track this. I’ve found one option, but it’s not free. Damn Google’s got me used to everything being free. I would be inclined to think that it has more to do with the mobile browser than the analytics tool, but with the claim of the one company that I was able to find, I’m guessing that I’m wrong.

I’m a big believer that the true strength in corporate blogging comes less from having a corporate blog and more from watching what others blog - I’ve been lucky enough to have some companies reach out to me because of what I’ve blogged, it would be great if an analytics company could help me out here.

- J.D. Amer is a guy that needs a better mobile analytics program.