4. Mobile Internet

Name of the driving force:
Mobile internet

What is it?
Mobile internet enables the user to go online with there mobile phones, pda or smart phone. With a mobile internet connection the user can access the World Wide Web, E-mail, streaming audio and video and chat sessions. Mobile internet requires an active data connection with a cellular network. Furthermore the use of mobile is growing rapidly and has surpassed its user base from the total PC based Internet users (Tomi Ahonen Almanac 2009). The great advantages for using mobile internet is that it can be used at anytime and any place as long as there is a cellular network.

Enablers
• Mobile phones
• Mobile web browsers
• Mobile operating systems
• Network operators
• Mobile internet subscription
• Cellular network

Inhibitors (what can stop or slow the driving force down)
• Cost of mobile internet subscription.
• Limitations of a mobile phone (small screen, battery size, memory, speed etc.)
• Lack of mobile web browsers that support technologies (flash is not supported to the fullest at the moment.)
• Speed of mobile internet.

Experts
• Tim Berners-Lee, Mobile Web Initiative W3C Director and inventor of the Web. http://www.w3.org/Mobile/
• Openwave: creator of the first ever mobile web browser UP.Browser. http://www.openwave.com/us/about_openwave/

Timing
With times like this it is important to ensure that information is available everywhere and always. This trend tends to tie up the lose knots in information loss. Although it is not yet perfect, newer and better technologies are emerging to help improve the quality of mobile internet (i.e. better mobile browsers, newer mobile phones).

Web resources
Mobile Web Initiative: http://www.w3.org/Mobile/
Opera: http://www.opera.com/mobile/
Open Mobile Alliance: http://www.openmobilealliance.org/