Watch the video real quick and then go check out his review. I hope they make this app for the Palm Pre to break me out of my Budweiser in a bottle and Pinot Grigio rut.

Awesome review on Attention Digital:
Drinkspiration should provide other major brands with mobilespiration
(I even love the title of review!)

Clearly, application development is chock full of potential. And, while I don’t think that businesses should ignore all other mobile device users, I do believe that mobile campaigns targeted exclusively to these users will likely succeed.

Without a doubt the iPhone has changed the way the world sees mobile Internet access. This wonderous device has opened the eyes of consumers and businesses alike that accessing the Internet via mobile is not only possible, but accessible.

What I wholeheartedly disagree with is the idea that the mobile web will be made obsolete by the iPhone.

First of all, no matter how wonderful the iPhone is (no disagreement on that point), it still only has a 3.5 inch diagonal display. Screen size makes a huge impact on usability. No matter how slick the browser is and how easy it is to zoom in on what you want, you can only see 3.5 inches of a website at a time.

If you don’t believe that this impacts usability, just imagine that right now as you are reading this article your computer monitor instantly shrunk to a 3.5 inch size. How would your Internet experience change? My bet is that you wouldn’t finish reading this article because it would take too long. Instead of being able to read it quickly, scanning several paragraphs at a time, you would be forced to consume it in small bite-size chunks which would slow you down considerably. That is just one example of how screen size changes usability.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that iPhone users won’t find it easier to access the full Internet via their phones. Of course they will. This device changes how easy it is to consume full-size websites, but it does not make it easy enough to abandon the idea of having a site specifically designed for mobile consumption. A site that offers what users need when they are mobile and access to more if they choose to consume it through their small device.

Another point to consider is that even if Apple sold 40 million units today (They won’t. Some analysts predict 40 million unit sales for all of 2009.) iPhone users are a small fraction of the total 3 billion user population. The rest of the mobile world is still accessing the Internet without all the whiz-bang features. Everyone else needs specifically mobile-accessible websites. Really.

Bottom line:
Businesses should offer a mobile-friendly website in addition to their main website. If they choose to also offer an iPhone specific site as well, that is icing on the cake. Just don’t forget the cake and only pass out the icing.

Related Posts:
Why the Mobile Web MUST Survive
Designing for the iPhone
How did the iPhone change the mobile industry?

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More about Fling Media and their work in developing iPhone sites.

My take on the mobile web is that it MUST survive. Not because any of us in the mobile industry need it to, but because the ultimate customers (the everyday guys and gals on the street using their phones to access the Internet) do.

While I do absolutely love the iPhone commercials and think the marketing team behind them is brilliant I also think they are confusing a lot of folks. They make it seem like people want to browse the Internet on mobile in the exact same way they do when they have a life-size (not pocket size) computer. I just don’t think that is true.

Think about it for a second, the reason a person goes online with their mobile is to find something or do something specific because they ARE mobile. If they had access to a full sized computer monitor and a keyboard their fingers actually fit on, they would use it. Maybe they do have access to a full sized computer, but think that jumping online on their phone will be quicker. This means they are looking for something specific, not leisurely browsing or researching. Consumers need to find that something and be able to consume it easily.

Make no mistake about it, I’m not saying the mobile web is WAP, far from it. The mobile web at its best is sites like m.redbook.com, m.tvguide.com, mobile.allrecipes.com and tarotreading.mobi. These sites are designed specifically for consumers to use them while they are mobile. The best features of their sites that people want are there, ready to be consumed easily via mobile. Ta Dah – this is the mobile web.

As Giff Gfroerer, i2SMS commented amid all this discussion:

Simply put, one can not put their entire Internet site onto what people see when they pull up their site from a mobile web browser. Figure out what content your consumers will need from their mobile device and make that front and center.

Yes, that’s it. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

It will be even better when consumers don’t need to choose a specific mobile URL but will automatically be directed to the proper content for how they are consuming it. And if they want the full site on their mobile to be able to choose that too. That is the future of the mobile web as I see it.

It is our job as mobile industry professionals, marketers and businesses to help consumers get what they want and need as quickly as possible whether they are using an iPhone, smartphone or flip phone. It really isn’t about what phone anyone is using, it is about the experience they have. If we want that experience to be good then the mobile web must survive.

Congrats to the marketing team at Apple. You deserve the honor.

While it was widely acknowledged amongst speakers that the arrival of the iPhone had changed the face of the mobile industry it was not agreed upon whether this was because of a true technological breakthrough or smart marketing of mobile technology.

At one point a gentlemen who was extolling the virtues of his beloved device commented that (Please forgive any technological errors I make when I write this. Remember I am marketing type, not a techie) the iPhone is the best because it was the only mobile device that uses Ajax.

The panelists were almost jumping out of their seats to say that was untrue – Jon von Tetschner of Opera stated that his browser incorporates Ajax technology and has for years. Craig Cumberland of Nokia was just as quick to point out that Nokia has an Ajax-supported browser. Then Sanjiv Parikh from Microsoft mentioned that in the early iPhone ads The New York Times is the website used to demonstrate the sheer coolness of using an iPhone but that it is Microsoft technology that powers the NYT site.

At that point it became crystal clear to me that the true super power behind the iPhone changing the face of the industry is Apple’s MARKETING department. Maybe Nokia’s phones and other phones using the Opera browser really are as totally impressive as the iPhone, but Apple showed it to the world in a widely seen ad first. Apple brought the concept of mobile browsing into the mainstream by doing great commercials that clearly demonstrate what is possible.

As for the technology behind all of this, I will leave that up to the true technologically inclined folks to debate; but if you ask me, those guys and gals over in marketing at Apple deserve a hearty round of applause. In my opinion, they have out-marketed everyone else in the industry.

What do you think about the iPhone? It’s impact on the industry? The marketing genius of Apple?

NOTE:
I currently own a handful of shares of Apple stock.