Posted on July 5, 2007 at 2:03 pm | 
By 
I’m reading more and more reports coming in that O2 is going to sell the Apple iPhone in the UK. However, this doesn’t make sense to me because it’ll mean users will have open access to the Web and quickly realise that iMode (premium content which makes up for most of O2’s data revenue) isn’t what they want. What they’re looking for is the ability to access whatever Web site they want and not just what O2 want them (you) to see.
Then again, if O2 is to ship the all singing and all dancing device, they’re likely to either remove the Web browser altogether, or make it difficult to find. This approach isn’t unusual for Operators when installing their own ‘variant software’ before distribution to retail outlets. Just because mobile vendors include specific applications, it doens’t mean Operators will include them when selling on to customers.
O2 is certainly not likely to place the Web and iMode browsers where they have equal prominence. Or are they? Perhaps they productised iMode to make it’s proposition more attractive to Telefonica and now realise it’s time to offer off-portal content.
The last time I wrote about the Mobile Web vs the Mobile Internet (cough; premium WAP stuff) I received a stunning word count of more than 17,000 words in comments alone. That’s a small book. To add to this, they were from very qualified people I trust at organisations such as Google, MobileAware, .mobi, WURFL and Opera. As a founding member of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative Steering Council, this is a subject close to my heart. It’s an area which attracts a lot of much needed debate too, which I quite like.
In short, I haven’t seen the iPhone yet, but I’ve always believed (before Apple announced its launch) that it will revolutionise how people perceive, consume and create content for small devices such as PDAs and mobile phones. It will demonstrate that the Mobile Web is not only about train timetables and weather information for business people traveling from Slough to London, as most mobile specific experts seem to believe.
There are more people in the world without access to the Web than there are who do. Most of these people live in developing countries. They’re likely to use mobile devices as their primary access point to the Web as it’s cheaper to roll out mobile networks than it is fixed line. Don’t be fooled into thinking users in developing countries don’t use the latest devices either, because they do. They’re fantastic early adopters.
If we were to sneeze in the European mobile market today, the US would catch a cold 2 to 3 years later. However, this may soon change with the release of the iPhone if the yanks finally realise the full potential of mobile devices and how they can engage consumers. As I see it, the iPhone is on par with the release of the first Intel Pentium chip, which helped to revolutionise our thought process regarding the capabilities of personal computers and the applications that could run on them.
If you decide to take a look at my original post about Mobile Web vs Mobile Internet, make sure to read the comments as they splintered off into a separate conversation to the original post. Even the original title is a little different to the main conversation.
13 Comments
So far,
July 5, 2007 @ 
Phil
I am disappointed to see that O2 are to be the ones to supply the iPhone in the UK for a couple of reasons.
The fact that it pushes i-mode, whatever it is… a portal, a browser(?), even the definition from the o2 site leaves a lot to the imagination, means that it is possible that they will hide Safari. I’m sure they couldn’t get rid of it though.
Secondly, O2 have awful data tariffs. They are perpetuating a dark age of the mobile web by giving “1Mb inclusive browsing allowance each month” on their normal tariffs and charging £3 per MB after that.
I was hoping T-mobile would get the iPhone, as their Web ‘n’ Walk tariffs would allow the data needed to make use of a phone with such potential (even though they include a Web ‘n’ Walk browser). Even Vodafone have started to offer better deals on mobile Internet.
I would like to see the iPhone revolutionise the mobile web too, but unless O2 pulls something spectacular out of the tariff bag I fear the mobile web will be set free by the phone but restricted by your wallet.