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Now that the year is over it’s time to look back at the predictions I made a year ago and compare them with what actually happened with mobile browsers,\u00a0 web apps and\u00a0 platforms in 2010.<\/p>\n
Prediction: There will be major improvements in smartphone mobile browser technology.<\/strong> Mozilla, Opera, Nokia, Skyfire, Google and RIM will compete to deliver a near desktop experience on high end devices. Expect to see better and faster JavaScript engines and increased support for HTML 5’s offline storage, geolocation, SVG and video features.\u00a0 Desktop level Adobe Flash support will also appear on most smartphone platforms, although probably not on\u00a0 the iPhone.<\/em><\/p>\n Reality: <\/strong>Mostly true,\u00a0 Opera Mobile 10.1 delivers up to 4-8X faster JavaScript<\/a> execution and HTML5 geolocation support to\u00a0 Symbian and Android. Google and Apple made constant incremental HTML5, feature set, usability, performance and rendering improvements to the Android and iOS browsers. Froyo\u00a0 gave the Android browser\u00a0 a 2-3X JavaScript speed boost. Firefox Mobile has matured into a useful browser on high spec Android devices. RIM and Samsung launched WebKit based browsers and Netfront launched\u00a0 an Android browser.\u00a0 The iOS, Opera Mobile and Firefox Mobile browsers support SVG. 1 point<\/strong><\/p>\n But mobile Flash has mostly been a bust. Adobe has been promising a full desktop Flash mobile player or plug-in for all the major smartphone platforms “next year” for at least a couple of years. Flash 10.1 did finally make it to some high end Android 2.2 phones in 2010 but reviewers generally found it sluggish<\/a>.\u00a0 As Flash failed to deliver I’m only giving myself 1\/2 a point<\/strong> on this one.<\/p>\n Prediction: Full-Web browsers will become the norm for feature phones<\/strong>. Feature phones have traditionally used WAP2 browsers that can only handle made for mobile pages less than about 20KB in size, Full-Web browsers can handle at least 500KB pages and can load desktop sites as long as they don’t require Flash or advanced JavaScript support.\u00a0 Opera Mini, Bolt and UC will push the boundaries of proxy based browsing to add desktop\/smartphone\u00a0 features like tabbed browsing, copy\/paste,\u00a0 bookmarklets and streaming video to many feature phones.\u00a0 Javascript performance of proxy based browsers will improve but will continue to be a weak point.\u00a0 Manufacturers and operators will increasingly specify proxy based full-web browsers or the embedded full-web direct browsers from Opera, Nokia (S40 Webkit), Netfront and Teleca on mid-range phones. The ancient Openwave and Nokia WAP browsers will be relegated to only the most basic phones.<\/em><\/p>\n Reality<\/strong>:\u00a0 Correct, it’s almost impossible\u00a0 to find a touch screen feature phone that doesn’t claim to have\u00a0 a “full web” browser. Opera Mini or Nokia’s S40 Webkit browser can be found on many quite low end phones. 1 point.<\/strong><\/p>\n “Middle-Web” sites will proliferate<\/strong>. These are what used to be called “iPhone Web Apps”\u00a0 They render as a single column like traditional mobile sites but with larger page sizes, more and larger images and judicious use of JavaScript for asynchronous partial page updates and eye candy like rollover effects.\u00a0 Some Middle-Web sites only support Webkit based touch browsers (iPhone, WebOS and Android) but the better ones will use graceful degradation and progressive enhancement<\/a> to support the less capable\u00a0 full-web browsers of feature phones.<\/em><\/p>\n Reality: <\/strong>Correct, although the “Middle-Web” moniker didn’t catch on.\u00a0 But “iPhone”, “Touch Web” or “Rich Mobile” sites are the norm for new mobile web development. Sadly too many of these sites are iPhone or iPhone\/Android only. 1 point<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Prediction: Traditional mobile web sites will start to disappear – prematurely. <\/strong>With interest and development effort centered around the middle-web, publishers and developers will tend to neglect their legacy mobile sites. This will be a mistake. Even though the handset replacement cycle averages 18 moths in the US and Europe, old phones live on for five years or more in the developing world. Case in point, according to AdMob<\/a> (PDF), the most popular handsets in Indonesia are the\u00a0 Nokia N70 and 6600\u00a0 which are\u00a0 five and seven years old. Developing markets are also where mobile traffic is growing the fastest; according to Opera<\/a> betwen Nov 2008 and Nov 2009 Opera Mini page views\u00a0 increased by\u00a0 604.5% in Indonesia, 445.3% in South Africa and 1091.1% in Vietnam.\u00a0 Those increases are on top very significant traffic volume as the three countries are in the top ten in the world in overall Opera Mini traffic.<\/em><\/p>\n Reality<\/strong>:\u00a0 Correct, unfortunately the latest versions of many\u00a0 web services to not work well or at all with the browsers on older and low end phones. Even Yahoo has started displaying “We’re sorry! Yahoo! Mobile, the starting point to the mobile Internet, does not support your device..<\/em>.” messages on many devices. Proxy browsers that make the web accessible on low end phones do help to fill the gap and their adoption is going through the roof.\u00a0 Opera Mini users nearly doubled to 80 million<\/a> in 2010 and the UC Browser claims 100 million users. 1 point<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The mobile web will look more and more like the desktop web.<\/strong> Publishers, developers and advertisers are waking\u00a0 up to the fact that more people are now browsing with phones than with PCs!<\/a> Things that are taken for granted in the desktop web like SEO, thematic consistency and big name, big dollar ad campaigns will increasingly come to the mobile web.<\/em><\/p>\n Reality: <\/strong>Correct, US mobile ad spend increased by 138% in 2010<\/a>. Mobile web sites are morphing into mobile web apps with rich feature sets that rival their desktop equivalents. Web designers are increasingly catering to special attributes of the mobile context using features like location awareness, SMS alerts and click to call. 1 point<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Prediction: Mobile data plans will change and not always for the better.<\/strong> The iPhone made browsing and connected apps on phones fashionable, especially in North America.\u00a0 The usage of and the demand for mobile data has risen dramatically among both smartphone and feature phone users.\u00a0 Users are clamoring for more and cheaper data, However, many mobile operators somehow failed to anticipate that demand and build out their networks to meet it.\u00a0 Users on AT&T, the exclusive iPhone operator in the US, are increasingly plagued with dropped data and voice connections. The operators most impacted by their own lack of foresight will cap, cut back and increase the prices of their data offerings.<\/em><\/p>\n Reality<\/strong>: Correct, data caps and limited data bundles are here.\u00a0 In the US, AT&T has capped new subscriber’s data plans at 2 GB\/month,\u00a0 T-Mobile USA has a 5 GB soft cap with speeds reduced t0 2.5G (Edge) levels on anything over the cap.\u00a0 Verizon has capped 4G LTE data at 5 GB\/month<\/a>.\u00a0 The UK’s O2, Orange and Vodafone have instituted caps of 1 GB\/month or less for new subscribers. 1 point.<\/strong><\/p>\n Prediction: Less impacted networks will see the rising demand for data an opportunity for growth.<\/strong> Expect to see some innovative low cost and data offerings from operators who still have surplus data capacity.\u00a0 These will tend to be through MVNO’s so that they don’t cannibalize revenue from current customers locked into higher cost plans by contracts.\u00a0 A couple of examples have already appeared;\u00a0 MVNO StraightTalk<\/a>‘s $45\/month unlimited voice, messaging and data plan on the Verizon 3G network\u00a0 and a $40\/month unlimited data-only offering\u00a0 from DataJack<\/a>, a MVNO using T-Mobile USA”s 3G network. There is some doubt about DataJack’s legitimacy<\/a>, but StraightTalk is real,\u00a0 owned by Am\u00e9rica M\u00f3vil<\/a>, the 4th largest mobile operator in the world, and sold by WalMart, the nation’s largest retailer.<\/em><\/p>\n Reality<\/strong>: Correct, in the US in 2010 Sprint began offering unlimited EVDO data for $0.35\/day under the Boost Mobile prepaid brand. Another Sprint data bargain is unlimited data and text plus 300 voice minutes for $25\/month through their Virgin Mobile subsidiary. Both offerings are limited to a few devices, mostly feature phones but Virgin does have the Samsung Intercept Android phone and many Boost users have reported that they have been able to swap legacy Palm OS and Windows mobile devices onto their Boost Mobile unlimited data plans. T-Mobile recently launched\u00a0 a $1.50\/day “unlimited” data package for prepaid\u00a0 customers which can be used with any compatible GSM or HSDPA phone. There is a soft cap on the T-Mobile plan, however. After 30 MB are used only Edge speeds are\u00a0 available for the rest of the day. 1 point<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Prediction: Apple’s tablet will revive the MID.<\/strong> Apple’s product will have a wonderfully intuitive user interface and gorgeous industrial design. It may even include some “killer” new feature like “insanely great” voice recognition software. But it will be expensive, locked down and likely limited to a single operator if it has mobile data support at all. But it will be fashionable, popular and will spur\u00a0 a rash of clones.\u00a0 Many of which will be keyboard-less netbooks running Windows 7, but some will use the Android or Chrome OSs.<\/em><\/p>\n Reality: <\/strong>Half right.\u00a0 The iPad is a huge success, selling 10 million units in 8 months. It’s gorgeous, expensive and restricted to running Apple approved software.\u00a0 But it’s not SIM locked and works on any GSM network.<\/p>\n But other than the Samsung Galaxy Tab which sold 1.5 million units in 2 1\/2 months, the flood of iPad clones I predicted is more like\u00a0 trickle.\u00a0 The Windows 7 tablets were a bad idea and didn’t happen, the Android tablets are only just now starting to reach the market and we are still waiting for the first Chrome OS tablet. Half a point<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Prediction: Mobile web services will start to replace mobile apps, but just barely<\/strong>. Supporting dozens of mobile platforms with a native app is expensive and nearly impossible.\u00a0 The Web is seen as a universal platform and will dominate in a few years, but not in 2010. Mobile browsers are getting better. But on most platforms browsers will still lack the sort of fast, stable and comprehensive\u00a0 JavaScript support\u00a0 needed for Ajax Web Apps that are anywhere near as fast and powerful as a good native app on the same platform.\u00a0 News and information services including Email and RSS readers will increasingly favor the web over apps. But messaging, mapping, and navigation will continue to be the domain of native apps for another year or two.<\/em><\/p>\n Reality<\/strong>: Correct, there has been a lot of talk about rich web apps, and some do exist, but native apps still have all the buzz. Mobile web apps will go mainstream, but to do so they need to have access to hardware features like local storage, the camera and notification systems which\u00a0 is consistent across platforms as well as better and more consistent\u00a0 video, JavaScript and\u00a0 SVG support. 1 point.<\/strong><\/p>\n Prediction: More Android, Symbian and Maemo, less iPhone<\/strong>.\u00a0 Apple has the potential to revolutionize the mobile scene again in 2010 but\u00a0 the competition is catching up. It will be harder for Cupertino to grow or even retain its market share this year.<\/em><\/p>\n Android in particular is reaching critical mass. Its been adopted by every major manufacturer that doesn’t have its own smartphone OSs. The latest Android devices like the Droid and Nexus One meet or exceed the iPhone in speed, screen size, resolution and just about every other capability except Apple’s unmatchable ease of use.<\/em><\/p>\n If Nokia can get its house in order and push Symbian down to ever lower price points it too can gain market share.<\/em><\/p>\n Maemo is not normob<\/a> ready yet\u00a0 but will be widely embraced by the tech savvy. With almost no current market share it can only go up.<\/em><\/p>\n The other Smartphone platforms will stagnate or worse. BlackBerry hasn’t been very innovative of late but with a strong user base and a practical feature set that “just works”, it will hold it’s own.\u00a0 Windows Phone is in decline, losing market share and vendor partners. Palm WebOS is a great but largely unknown platform. Palm seems to lack the resources for the worldwide cross-operator distribution and promotion it needs and is a likely acquisition target.<\/em><\/p>\n Reality<\/strong>: Half right. It’s more like more Android, less of everything else.\u00a0 Android was amazing in 2010 growing from a global market share of 3.5%\u00a0 to 25.3% according to Gartner<\/a>.\u00a0 Android took market share from everyone else. Symbian<\/strong>‘s unit sales rose from 18.3 million to\u00a0 29.5 million but its market\u00a0 share still fell from 44.6% to 36.6%.\u00a0 The N900’s UI, browser and openness excited a lot of people but then Maemo<\/strong> became MeeGo and Meego phones have yet to ship.\u00a0 Half a point.<\/strong><\/p>\n I think I did pretty well with my 2010 predictions with 7 out of 10 correct and the other 3 partially so. That’s 8.5 points out of a possible 10.\u00a0 Check back next week for my 2011 predictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo by over_kind_man – Some rights reserved Now that the year is over it’s time to look back at the predictions I made a year ago and compare them with what actually happened with mobile browsers,\u00a0 web apps and\u00a0 platforms in 2010. Prediction: There will be major improvements in smartphone mobile browser technology. Mozilla, Opera, Nokia, Skyfire, Google and RIM will compete to deliver a near desktop experience on high end devices. Expect to see better and faster JavaScript engines … Continue reading