Why The Mobile Web Still Can’t Beat the Real One

We don’t know too many people who are ready to chuck their laptops in favor of their handhelds. But in case you were thinking about it, Publishing 2.0’s Scott Karp offers a reminder as to “why the mobile web sucks“:

1. “Wireless carrier networks are SLOW”

Karp argues that across all services and platforms, the mobile web is still maddeningly slow. His simple example demonstrates the point pretty well:

Last weekend, I was trying to figure out how late Costco is open on Sunday. It would have been faster, literally, to call my wife at home and ask her to look it up on a real broadband connection. That’ a sad state.

2. “Public WiFi access is a SCAM”
An abundance of WiFi choices doesn’t mean much when each network requires a separate subscription and fee. Karp argues that with municipalities’ plans for free WiFi growing stagnant, having a wireless-enabled device is useless unless you’re willing to shell out a considerable amount of money.

3. “Sites aren’t formated for small screens”Karp argues that on blackberries and iPhones alike, web content is still either A) not formatted correctly, or B) a pain to navigate - and often both. As he puts it: “Looking at a normal web page on iPhone’s 3 inch screen is like surfing the web through a keyhole.” Which ties into his fourth point:

4. “Mobile device screens are too small”

Karp emphasizes the obvious: any handheld, by virtue of its portability, just can’t offer the screen size that allows us to comfortably perform more complex or time-consuming tasks - like banking, blogging, or shopping.

5. “Advertising gets in the way”

This is one of Karp’s more compelling points:

When pages load with blazing broadband speed, I don’t care if ads load along with them. With a nice wide screen, I don’t even care if ads take up a large portion of the screen real estate.

But on a small screen, all bets are off. Ads that slow down page loading or fill up the screen are going to be most unwelcome, unless they are extremely relevant and useful, i.e. a coupon for what I want to buy in the type of store I’m searching for.

There aren’t many ads yet on the mobile web — other than banners made for the full-screen web that annoyingly load. So this is more about anticipating the suckiness to come.

[via Publishing 2.0]