A lot of people seem to think so. Vinton Cerf, Google Vice President recognised in 2007 that “the future growth of the Internet lies in the hands of mobile phone users, not computers”. A recent survey from Pew Internet & American Life Project confirms the man’s vision stating that the mobile phone would be the main connection tool to the internet for most of people in 2020. The survey’s findings show that not only the mobile phone would be dominating the web market, it would also be the one and only way to access internet for most of people. We can either agree or disagree with these professional and very experimented “fortune tellers”, but they are not answering the main question: WHY? What makes mobile phones the future of the internet? And what would possibly curb this staggering rise?
Mobile phones have many advantages compared to PCs. First of all, a mobile phone is smaller than a PC and is constantly in its owner’s pocket. Unlike a fixed PC, the mobile phone goes where you go, thereby enables access to information, any time and anywhere there is cell phone coverage; web users no longer need to be tied to a desk or to search for a nearby WiFi spot, they can instantly access and exchange information. And thanks to the continued growth of 3G / 3.5G / GPRS technology and to the processing power in most modern mobile phones, mobile web connection speed is as good, if not better, as wireline connection and allows mobile phones to be constantly connected to the internet.
Another specific mobile device capability, which is a real advantage for the mobile web, is the location technologies. This technology allows the user to be provided with location-sensitive information. Thus the user can have an easy access to useful and relevant content related to his location. For example a shopper is able to receive via SMS a promotional offer from the place he is currently visiting.
Technologic reasons are not the only ones to justify the growth of mobile web compare to fixed internet. Because of its little size and its discreetness a mobile phone can appear to be the best tool for many online activities: personal activities that one wouldn’t want others to have a view on. A desktop with its large screen is a lot less discrete and allows everyone around to see what websites or emails are being consulted (in the case of open space offices for example). Would you want your boss to see that you spend some time on Facebook or MySpace during work hours? Or worse, would you like him to learn that you are seeking a new job by seeing above your shoulder that you are receiving email alerts from a job platform? For this reason mobile phone seem to be a privileged tool for some personal online activities. Confirming this, a ComScore report states that mobile social networking is responsible for the growth of the mobile internet in Europe. One third of European mobile social networking users access social media sites exclusively.
Our mobile phone is always with us and keeps us connected with everyone and everything that is important to us all day, every day. Thus, a mobile phone contains a huge amount of personal information and data (contact details, banking details, work and personal agenda, private notes, private SMS, pictures and videos etc.) which makes it a very personal and important item for most of people. For this reason personalisation is an important trend in the market of mobile web. As with PC, mobile web users want to differentiate and personalise their own mobile web experience by adding special features or applications such as personal horoscope, daily weather information and traffic information and so on. In this context, widgets are now available for mobile (Djinngo, Webwag, Goojet have been presented during the Mobile 2.0 conference in February) and Yahoo is launching its new Yahoo! Mobile Service, a highly-personalized mobile starting point to the internet.
In our opinion, the only area in which the mobile web is at the moment not as efficient as a PC connection is for the m-commerce (mobile commerce) which is the mobile version of the E-commerce.
The m-commerce is existing for already few years (to buy virtual content such as ringtones, music etc…) and is getting a real big deal since 2008 (it’s now possible to buy cinema or concert ticket). It is a growing phenomenon which is unlikely to change in the near future; tests are already being made for daily purchase mobile payments. People will only need to pass their mobile phone near a terminal to take the subway, the bus or to buy a can of Coke from a machine. In this sense a mobile phone is about to become a form of wallet. Written like that it sounds amazing: ease-of-use, convenience, and anytime-anywhere availability. But major barriers are still exisiting: customers’ fear of fraud as well as the obvious risk of loss or theft of the phone. Therefore, there is a real need for security procedures that would answer to this new problematic in order to gain consumer trust. It is expected that effective security systems will soon be developed but it will probably take several year for them to be tested, improved and really efficient.
To conclude it seems that, in fact, mobile phones internet have all necessary qualities to be the future of the internet. However there are still major security issues which are still stopping the full accomplishment. But, what if mobile internet can not finally succeed? Would another tool would be able to replace or back it up? What about interactive TV?
Mobile phones have many advantages compared to PCs. First of all, a mobile phone is smaller than a PC and is constantly in its owner’s pocket. Unlike a fixed PC, the mobile phone goes where you go, thereby enables access to information, any time and anywhere there is cell phone coverage; web users no longer need to be tied to a desk or to search for a nearby WiFi spot, they can instantly access and exchange information. And thanks to the continued growth of 3G / 3.5G / GPRS technology and to the processing power in most modern mobile phones, mobile web connection speed is as good, if not better, as wireline connection and allows mobile phones to be constantly connected to the internet.
Another specific mobile device capability, which is a real advantage for the mobile web, is the location technologies. This technology allows the user to be provided with location-sensitive information. Thus the user can have an easy access to useful and relevant content related to his location. For example a shopper is able to receive via SMS a promotional offer from the place he is currently visiting.
Technologic reasons are not the only ones to justify the growth of mobile web compare to fixed internet. Because of its little size and its discreetness a mobile phone can appear to be the best tool for many online activities: personal activities that one wouldn’t want others to have a view on. A desktop with its large screen is a lot less discrete and allows everyone around to see what websites or emails are being consulted (in the case of open space offices for example). Would you want your boss to see that you spend some time on Facebook or MySpace during work hours? Or worse, would you like him to learn that you are seeking a new job by seeing above your shoulder that you are receiving email alerts from a job platform? For this reason mobile phone seem to be a privileged tool for some personal online activities. Confirming this, a ComScore report states that mobile social networking is responsible for the growth of the mobile internet in Europe. One third of European mobile social networking users access social media sites exclusively.
Our mobile phone is always with us and keeps us connected with everyone and everything that is important to us all day, every day. Thus, a mobile phone contains a huge amount of personal information and data (contact details, banking details, work and personal agenda, private notes, private SMS, pictures and videos etc.) which makes it a very personal and important item for most of people. For this reason personalisation is an important trend in the market of mobile web. As with PC, mobile web users want to differentiate and personalise their own mobile web experience by adding special features or applications such as personal horoscope, daily weather information and traffic information and so on. In this context, widgets are now available for mobile (Djinngo, Webwag, Goojet have been presented during the Mobile 2.0 conference in February) and Yahoo is launching its new Yahoo! Mobile Service, a highly-personalized mobile starting point to the internet.
In our opinion, the only area in which the mobile web is at the moment not as efficient as a PC connection is for the m-commerce (mobile commerce) which is the mobile version of the E-commerce.
The m-commerce is existing for already few years (to buy virtual content such as ringtones, music etc…) and is getting a real big deal since 2008 (it’s now possible to buy cinema or concert ticket). It is a growing phenomenon which is unlikely to change in the near future; tests are already being made for daily purchase mobile payments. People will only need to pass their mobile phone near a terminal to take the subway, the bus or to buy a can of Coke from a machine. In this sense a mobile phone is about to become a form of wallet. Written like that it sounds amazing: ease-of-use, convenience, and anytime-anywhere availability. But major barriers are still exisiting: customers’ fear of fraud as well as the obvious risk of loss or theft of the phone. Therefore, there is a real need for security procedures that would answer to this new problematic in order to gain consumer trust. It is expected that effective security systems will soon be developed but it will probably take several year for them to be tested, improved and really efficient.
To conclude it seems that, in fact, mobile phones internet have all necessary qualities to be the future of the internet. However there are still major security issues which are still stopping the full accomplishment. But, what if mobile internet can not finally succeed? Would another tool would be able to replace or back it up? What about interactive TV?
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