My former belief was that mainstream "mobile Internet" usage was at least 7 or more years away because of all the "moving parts" (e.g., network speeds, pricing/business models, handsets and awkward user experience). For many reasons I now believe the mobile Internet will develop much faster than that. When it does it will be another disruptive event for everyone, including potentially the major Internet players.
Whoever has the best user experience will win the day, regardless of whether they're G, Y or M or a no-name company we haven't yet heard about. (As an interesting aside, Nokia has made a huge push into Local.)
Eric Schmidt and Terry Semel, among others, keep talking about how there are a bazillion more mobile devices than PCs in the world. That's of course true. But making "mobile search" or mobile local search really work is another matter entirely.
That's the background. I was reading David Pogue's NY Times (reg. req'd) review of the new Motorola Q this morning at the gym (it's very awkward to read a newspaper on the elliptical trainer; hurry up and bring out this device). He basically says: beautiful hardware, bad software. But the phone, which in the end he recommends, is half the price of the Treo or Crackberry. That's the radical part.
The attention, competition, money and innovation in mobile are accelerating the evolution of the marketplace. The user experience will get worked out — or more precisely the range of user experiences that will drive adoption. So if you don't have a wireless strategy now, you should start thinking about one quickly.
