Wow - one guy decides that startup life isn’t for him and this is supposed to throw a whole shadow over the industry.....hmmm I don’t think so.

I like Russell, I’ve been a long time reader of his blog and an occasional user of his Mowser application.

I think the key point here is that...."Mowser was filling a temporary problem”, with the release of the iPhone and the imminent massive model variants of the Android OS on the Horizon and the sure but steady improvements in the Windows Mobile 6 OS I think Russell is throwing in the towel as handsets are getting “good enough to no longer need Mowser”.

Now do I think he threw it in too early with only 12 months operation - sure but thats because I’m a serial startup entrepreneur with 2 listed companies under my belt.

As an employee of http://www.Amethon.com one of the worlds first mobile browser specific analytics applications I for one am seeing huge growth in mobile content.

Amethon’s clients are seeing traffic build month on month, and yes I think a lot of that has to do with better quality handsets and better quality browsers and most importantly higher data speeds with somewhat more reasonable flat rate unlimited data plans.

With a better user experience more people are finding the convenience of accessing content on the move .....or standing still but getting it right where they are standing with a mobile device never far from their hand ....

The best part about this mobile content is the volume of advertising coming into the space is funding a better user experience, and with tools like Amethon Mobile Analytics users analytics information and a solid roi can be demonstrated against this advertising spend.

Am I sad to see Mowser go, yes - Will Russell bounce, for sure - one of the smartest pioneers in the mobile business, Do I think USA consumers are a little behind eastern consumer patterns in mobile content consumption - YES but that has more to do with carriers and handsets than personal desires and usage patterns.

The mobile space is just taking off, with all the fallouts and successes that there was in the desktop browser wars in the 1990’s.

Watch this space and get in early......your customers are waiting.

Regards,
Dean Collins
http://www.Amethon.com

Having a proxy service that converts PC Internet sites to a mobile one is like putting a Ferari logo on a Hyundai and expecting it to go 0 - 60 in 3 seconds.  The flaw with Mowser is that converting rich and dynamic content to XHTML/WML/HTML doesn’t make it usable.  The dependency is on the PC Internet site owner to create a true mobile experience.  This includes navigation, the device profile, and the optimal markup language for the device.  There are plenty of successful mobile Internet applications.

Facebook
Digg
MySpace
Etc.

Sounds like Russell’s got a case of sour grapes sitting in the trunk of his Hyundai.  He got it wrong from the beginning and foolishly spent too much money doing so.

I hate to say (for the moment) I agree with Russell. I am coming in from a content and marketing POV. I really think the only thing the Iphone proves is that the experience must be closer to that we get on our computers. And it will be a few years before the old phone that everyone has is in the Iphone’s class. More than a few. Until then businesses based around the presentation of content will be less than likely to be profitable and others may have huge memberships, but like the social network craze will not monetize it. It is still the Wild Wild West out here. No structure for measuring, rather no standard structure. Ringtones are dead. Frankly the only thing profitable is SMS promos. Text2tv, sms marketing and the like. Still a long way to go for real.

This cracks me up, one year into a startup and he runs for the hills?

Thats just awesome for someone developing a rendering client.

Alas, the fact he could not get a red cent in funding actually impresses me to a certain extent, as at least it shows that VC’s operating within the business are showing some common sense.

Lets be practical, today there are no where near the numbers of people using the mobile web to make it a profitable one trick pony. I would be thinking more along the lines of creating a client that has access to more than just browsing capabilities i.e. mobile ticketing, browsing, embedded gaming, gps, content download platform etc.

Basically using the client as a kind of dumb terminal while having it access various platforms. On todays handsets, this is “possible” but once we start using phones with SIP stacks (either soft or hard) and accessing IMS technology it should make life a whole lot easier for these kinds of services to add value.

However, this sort of development is a little bit down the road and you really should have investors come in that have a 48 month exit plan and a LOT of funding.

Don’t take me the wrong way, I like his mowser idea a lot, as I find WAP to be painful to navigate with. BUT I would never have started this venture in the first place, as the good people of Google/MS/Yahoo/insert mega name here are going to come along and do what you did in a month.

On a side note these clients have a tough gig if they are not pre-installed on the terminal.

However, I could be just full of Cr4p

The mobile web is not what Russell thought it would be.  It challenges the conventions of the old internet.  Mobile services are alive and well and growing, but maybe Russell and many others trying to transfer conventinal web thinking to mobile; just don’t get it.

Of course, the mobile web is not dead.  All you have to do is take a look at our live ticker (http://www.bango.com/live) of people accessing mobile websites and paying for services through the Bango platform to see it’s alive and kicking.  It’s everyday people accessing everyday stuff that’s feeding the mobile web. 

Let’s not get too hung up on the iPhone and how it’s changing the world.  Yes, it’s got a fantastic user interface, a superb photo viewer and it’s encouraging people to surf the web on their phone.  But the camera is only reasonable, the games console is poor and security is terrible.  Truth is the phone is just about mediocre.

Also although most business executives own a SmartPhone so they have access to email and voice on the go, this doesn’t reflect the vast majority of mobile phone users and what they want to do.  In our view, most mobile web surfers are using their mobile to to get a range of everyday stuff - updated sports scores maybe, to listen to music, view traffic alerts perhaps and certainly to be entertained.

Read more on our blog .... http://bangoblog.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/mobile-webs-not-dead/

SmartPhone browsers (Opera, S60, Blackberry etc.) provide a passable job at rendering full web pages on small screens. Nevertheless, the user experience is not great - however you look at it squeezing a site designed for 1024x768 pixels and mouse navigation is never going to be a great user experience on a 2” screen with a 4 way cursor pad however much zooming, finger gestures or tilting you do.

The simple fact is that most phone users have feature phones with XHTML browsers. The most successful mobile web sites today focus on delivering an excellent experience on these feature phones - apparently mobile web usage has (finally) grown 100% in the last 12 months - the reason is a combination of better browsers, faster phones, faster networks and better content that is tailored to the limitations of XHTML - ie small page sizes (quick downloads) and relevant content. Unlimited browsing plans are also becoming bundled in low cost carrier offerings.

As an example, mobile-only social networking sites are seeing hundreds of millions of mobile only page views per month - our own social media photo-sharing site, snapmylife.com, launched 90 days ago is already attracting millions of page views a month. There are plenty of other sites that offer a really good user experience to mobile phones. TMZ, Yahoo, CNN, MLB, ESPN etc.

The bottom line is to design the content for the viewing device and your content/application - start with an XHTML mobile site; add an iPhone and/or smartphone optimized versions that use Javascript judiciously; and then offer a downloadable application if your product requires it. Remember that downloadable applications will have a significantly smaller take-up rate unless you can get onto the carriers deck, and that if the application needs to make an internet connection the user will need an all out data plan. Often a mobile web approach is the best way of reaching a wide audience quickly, and without depending on the carrier.

Reformatting desktop web content for mobile has it’s place, but the real activity on the mobile web is in the recent trend towards creating innovative applications and services that deliver relevant content to mobile users, customized to provide a good user experience on both smartphones and mass market feature phones.

George Grey
http://www.snapmylife.com

Mowser was a short term fudge to make “keyboard and mouse only” websites work on mobile phones.  At least it was not as malicious as some transcoders, but it had no longterm future.

Have a look at the check dot wap dot com site and you will see how many people are testing out sites to make them mobile.

Almost every company is adapting their sites to reach the billion or so mobile browsers that are out there now to provide quick and easy access to to teh web, and the phones are getting better all the time.  Google, Facebook, myyspace, sky, bbc, ebay, yahoo, disney, usatoday, etc etc they are all making mobile friendly web sites - for the mobile web.  In fact the only compnay I can think of that does not have a mobile site seems to be apple - but then they are a very closed animal (iphone,ipod,newton etc).

Mowser is dead. Long live the mobile web.