Peter-Paul Kock backs off the iPhone development rants and looks at the technologies in this blog posting. The assessment is accurate and some of the comments highlight the problems with current mobile web technologies. Designing for the mobile web makes me think of planned-obsolescence in that most of this stuff will have to be rebuilt as the standards improve.As I said in the original article, device APIs that give access to device functionality like the camera, the file system, the address book, and so on, are coming. There are some security considerations, and the user will have to give permission for most forms of access, but those problems will be solved.
“Will be solved” is the operable phrase. As some have noted, please click on Safari in airplane mode. Such apps do not work. Web technologies will improve, in 5 years. Seriously, until then the objective should be to push the boundary of mobile and force the evolution of technologies that will facilitate great interaction models. Mobile web will rule, and Flash is not the answer, but it is going to take very real effort.
The mobile web is not for losers, it is however for most of the established players who avoided innovating. If I were behind, pushing mobile web would be the most viable path, and as a plus it would extend the mobile web to the rest of the world where very real growth is happening. The slick apps can be deceiving. Strategy can clear the necessary path.
