Good read. Encouraging. Brian, it would be very interesting to hear your opinion about Flash Lite. Why isn’t FL in your list? Thank you and have a merry Christmas.

Totally agree with Mark on this one. Also hailing from the UK. It has been the ridiculous data charges that UK carriers impose that has prevented me, and I suspect the majority of others from mobilizing the web. Things are starting to change in this area, but I’d still say cost is a far more important component than the technology.

It’s good that the technology is improving and converging with the non mobile web, and also we’re starting to experience more reasonable levels of charges for mobile data. At some point in the very near future I’d expect these two variables to converge, and set in motion the gears to fast forward the mobile web.

I dont know about in the US but in the UK the barrier to ‘mobile 2.0’ has been the cost of web browsing on a mobile device and in 2008 the only thing that is going to change is that iPhone users who are paying though the nose for hardware and an extortionate monthly contract get unlimited data on their phones (skype anyone?). as soon as carriers release their stranglehold on data pricing then thats the only blockage to ‘mobile 2.0’ and has been since the 90’s! DoCoMo (or whatever its called) has been massively popular in the far east for many years wholly due to a more reasonable data pricing structure. Yes Opera is a neat browser, yes the iPhone brings true web page browsing to mobiles but until data and bandwidth are sorted then we’re going nowhere!

Mark: Your response is nearly identical to my own – so I won’t repeat what you’ve written, but just to say that you’re spot-on!

As much as I like this article and ‘Mobile 2.0’ in general, it really is going to stumble in the UK if carriers continue screwing the consumers.
One of the flaws of this article (if not the push for Mobile 2.0 itself) is that much of it hangs on one phone – the iPhone – but aside the iPhone, which other mobile/cell phones have been launched on the market that come anywhere close to matching or competing with it? None!

While that is great for the iPhone (and I’ll be the first person to say it fully deserves it’s success) – it is offered on only only one network, with weedy contracts at inflated prices…all of which are far too limiting for many consumers.

Mobile 2.0 does seem to be taking steps in the right direction, but phone manufacturers and carriers (at least in the UK) are not!

2008 needs to see Mobile-browsing costs in the UK fall dramatically, and Mobile 2.0 needs to be used on various handsets (not just the iPhone), or it will remain as much of a novelty as it did in 2007.