Theme for 2010: The Mobile Internet is Bigger than You Think
Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker gave a fantastic presentation at Web 2.0 Summit that I’ve been meaning to post here for a few weeks. The presentation is rich with information and the slides are dense.
On slide 29, Meeker starts her argument that “The Mobile Internet Is and Will Be Bigger Than Most Think.” I encourage you to read her slides and watch the video of her talk. Both are embedded below.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how her title speaks to what is going on right now in most people’s minds when it comes to mobile.
There is so much focus on iPhone applications and the iPhone generally, that massive changes are happening right in front of everyone’s noses that aren’t being noticed or are being taken for granted.
Perhaps the simplest example of this is the explosive growth of the mobile web. We have analysts predicting that 1 billion mobile web users in 2010—more than the number of PC users accessing the web.
Opera continues to report exponential growth in usage of its Opera Mini browser—a browser designed for low end feature phones instead of smart phones like the iPhone. The biggest growth is happening in developing countries.
And despite all of this mobile web growth, most businesses aren’t taking the steps necessary to optimize their web sites for mobile devices. Some have iPhone blinders to such a degree that they undermine their own iPhone applications.
And its not just the mobile web. The same could be said for SMS, MMS, GPS, or cameras.
In her presentation, Meeker stated talked about this as a trend for 2009, but I don’t see this disconnect between the size of the mobile Internet and most people’s perception of it going away any time soon.
In fact, Meeker summarized succinctly what I’ve been writing and about presenting about for the last couple of years.
Therefore, I’m adopting her trend title as my theme for next year.
- 2010: The Mobile Internet is Bigger than You Think
That’s right. The mobile internet is already here and it’s bigger than you think. Are you ready? If not, what are you waiting for?
Jason Grigsby is one of the co-founders of Cloud Four, Mobile Portland and Responsive Field Day. He is the author of Progressive Web Apps from A Book Apart. Follow him at @grigs.
