Back in 2009, I wrote an article discussing the future of the mobile web which was simply one of many similar screeds that I had penned on the Fourth Speaker. Ok, enough with the self- congratulating on the subject. I know you will soon be asking us to optimize your site for mobile, or you will be irrelevant.
What I wanted to point out in this post is a recent TechCrunch article covering Facebook’s Mobile ambitions. The read is a good one indeed, as it simultaneiously uncovers the dog-eat-dog underbelly of the big tech players and the absolute importance of the mobile web.
Mobile will become the big survival test for the big names of today, as well as the marker for whether your business will thrive or suffer in obscurity. Take this seriously. You should not think todays battles between the big players as isolated from the battles you will face to make your business the best that it can be.
Here is the comment from a fellow developer on the story that triggered this post:
Kevin Cawley ยท Boulder, Colorado
dude, you have lost your mind creating drama where there is none. mobile web apps will be the future - it is inevitable; everyone knows this, facebook knows this, and that is why they are pushing this project to accelerate destiny.mobile web technology will catch up (just like it did on the desktop). as a developer I will massively benefit because I can build one app that runs anywhere. and my consumers will benefit because they can have a choice in mobile device and have a consistent and good experience. how can this not be clear to everyone?
the big losers will be the app stores (mainly apple) - google I suspect doesn’t care as they will make buckets of $ on mobile search.