Recently, I had the good fortune of listening to folks from Google and Yahoo tell me about their mobile stuff (which I will never repeat, of course). Their thoughts and direction was very much in line with what I expected them to do. What I had to revise was my estimate as to when they would get there. I was off by about 6-12 months. I thought the GYM guys would be
focusing mostly on the fixed Web (PC Browsers) and only get to
compelling mobile stuff at the end of 2006 or later. Nope. These guys have already started blowing our socks off with new mobile services.
WAP Review (link below) looked at the current mobile sites for the GYM triumvirate – Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft (MSN). Very little of what was covered in this article was new to me, but I like it that everything is on one place and together. In that way, the comparisons stand out.
Also, this article shows that there were some mobile services that were available way back when in 2000 (I remember using some of them). Yet, to me, most of these services are what one would expect from these guys (which is why I have not been too keen about them). Though this article does highlight the parts I do like about the mobile
services, such as the SMS services and the integration with the PC (a big thing for me).
I am curious what are the usage levels of these services and if they are relevant to the general GYM subscriber base. Is this just pushing the Web to the phone, does it fit the mobile lifestyle (communication) or is it just browsing?
I used to think that Yahoo was the killer company in the mobile space, mostly because of their media properties, huge user base, and, now, the team they have assembled. I still think they are a major contender here and will be the one to match.
But, I thought that Google didn’t get it until I had a chance to meet some of their mobile guys (coincidentally, soon after the amazing Google Local Mobile Java app came out). Now I think Google is making a great and very skillful effort into extending their presence into mobile.
Whereas Yahoo extends their full (and heavy) experience to the phone, Google extends their deep relevance and simplicity in a very mobile-savvy way. Either way, it’s going to be a great year (mostly in the US) for mobile.
Link: The Web’s Big 3 Do Mobile. at Wap Review.
These three sites are the kings of the Internet at the moment. They all have tons of money to spend on R&D and market research. And they need to spend it so that they can hop on the next big thing quickly enough to at least maintain their position. I believe that mobile data, especially the mobile web is going to be one of those next big things so I thought it would be interesting to see what the big three have been up to in mobile.
MSN, who? I have a blind spot there, so I don’t feel
confident in commenting there. But I wonder if they might have the same
problem Nokia and Sony have – pushing pet technologies instead of
helping people. Something to think about.
