Much has been said about the death of the mobile web since Mowser’s founder Russell Beattie announced he was closing down his company. The reaction has been everything from agreement (here) to saying the mobile web is misunderstood, complete disagree…

I figure there can’t be more than 100M mobile users capable/willing to pay for Mobile Web service. Kids can’t affort their data plans unless their parents pay for it.

What do you think about the numbers?

As Dave and Dean have pointed out, we are seeing incredible growth in page views on the mobile web.

When we announced the beta of Mobilytics (http://www.mobilytics.net), we asked people to take an online survey. I will publish the results on my blog, but here’s a summary:

We have requests from over 200 beta testers representing a total of 1,845,056,869 page views per month. Yes that is 1.8 BILLION!

It also represents 1,014,071,014 actual visitors.

Of course, these numbers may not be right which is why they want to use Mobilytics. They are probably much LOWER than they really are since mobile phones don’t do javascript, and many use same ip.

Dave pretty much summed it up. Lose the transcoding services and build useful mobile specific content.

If anyone is interested in our beta, or taking the survey, please go to: http://www.surv...B0g9s7NnA_3d_3d

Greg Harris, CEO
Mobilytics

http://www.mobilytics.net

For example, today I wanted to find out Fast Company’s office number while I was in school (unfortunately, my school does not give net access to students). So I found a private corner (cell phones are banned too), Googled the site, and scanned the contact page for their 212 number. It wasn’t exactly speedy as a Formula1 car, but it was convenient enough.

The mobile Web is not dead. It simply needs improvement (like how more people use smartphones).

What you end up (mobile pages generated automatically from web content using broad stroke rules) is not something a brand or business serious about mobile cares to have presented to their audience.

Directly stated no one wants a lame, featureless, stripped down, even “bastardized” version of anything. That is true today, was true a year ago when Mowser launched, and true 8 years ago when “WAP” was declared dead. Yes, for mobile enthusiasts this “feature” can be handy at times but for the masses those “times” have never come and never will.

The definition of “Mobile Sites” or the “Mobile Web”aside…

The growth of mobile [site] traffic that Dean mentions above, “Amethon’s clients are seeing traffic build month on month” is also being experienced across a variety of services including mobile ad networks, full featured moble site building/community services, social search/discovery and mobile analytic services.

On April 28th in New York, MobileMonday NY is hosting a free event including panelists from several companies active in mobile analytics and social search – Amethon, Bango, Mobilytics, Resolution Media, Quattro, TigTag, and taptu.

In part, we’ll be discussing insights from watching the very real growth of the Mobile Web — what is being learned from the aggregated mobile data and social actions/interactions of people. The event is free — learn more and RSVP here: http://www.mobilemonday-ny.com

You’re all invited.

Cheers,
David Harper
Founder, Winksite
Co-Founder, MobileMonday NY

I like Russell, I’ve been a long time reader of his blog and an occasional user of his Mowser application.

I think the key point here is that….”Mowser was filling a temporary problem”, with the release of the iPhone and the imminent massive model variants of the Android OS on the Horizon and the sure but steady improvements in the Windows Mobile 6 OS I think Russell is throwing in the towel as handsets are getting “good enough to no longer need Mowser”.

Now do I think he threw it in too early with only 12 months operation – sure but thats because I’m a serial startup entrepreneur with 2 listed companies under my belt.

As an employee of http://www.Amethon.com one of the worlds first mobile browser specific analytics applications just for mobile content, I for one, am seeing huge growth in mobile content.

Amethon’s clients are seeing traffic build month on month, and yes I think a lot of that has to do with better quality handsets and better quality browsers and most importantly higher data speeds with somewhat more reasonable flat rate unlimited data plans.

With a better user experience more people are finding the convenience of accessing content on the move …..or standing still but getting it right where they are standing with a mobile device never far from their hand ….

The best part about this mobile content is the volume of advertising coming into the space is funding a better user experience, and with tools like Amethon Mobile Analytics users analytics information and a solid roi can be demonstrated against this advertising spend.

Am I sad to see Mowser go, yes – Will Russell bounce, for sure – one of the smartest pioneers in the mobile business, Do I think USA consumers are a little behind eastern consumer patterns in mobile content consumption – YES but that has more to do with carriers and handsets than personal desires and usage patterns.

The mobile space is just taking off, with all the fallouts and successes that there was in the desktop browser wars in the 1990’s.

Watch this space and get in early……your customers are waiting.

Regards,
Dean Collins
http://www.Amethon.com

I am convinced that for the time being, there only 2 kinds of companies that’ll succeed in the mobile web space:
1. A big desktop web company who can cover the losses with rev from the desktop or
2. A startup that raises lots of money to cover their burn for the next 3 to 5 years.

There’s a lot of activity in this space but I do not believe that mobile web, in its current form, is in a state that can support lots of startups; especially those that depend on traffic. Therefore, I believe that it is the big companies that will first see some success from monetizing the mobile web. They will find that the mobile web will prove to be a business on its own or at least help their desktop business.

Only then will startups have a chance to thrive which is why they need to raise lots of money now. If their current business plan calls for generating enough traffic in the next 2 years to stay in business, might as well close shop early because I do not believe this will happen.

Now if the iPhone would just become Flash-enabled….

I think that the biggest difference between a mobile device and a PC, is that one of them is (most of the time) one hand operated.

BTW, TechCrunch does not look too bad on my Treo750 (somehow I do not get the ads, which is definitely good). Take a long time to load though, even on a 3G.