The Australian IT has reported that the University of Adelaide and m.Net have performed research leading them to believe that critical mass is about to occur with the mobile web in Australia.

m.Net Directory of Research Dr. Marisa Maio Mackey is quoted as saying.

“For the first time we’re starting to see the use of mobile data (or non-voice) services has reached a critical mass. MDS will take off in the next six to 12 months”

During their research they discovered that people who accessed a web site from their phone doubled to 40% over the last year and that 80% would increase their usage if it were not for carrier pricing holding them back.

It’s an interesting article, check it out. There’s also a contradicting report from Sony and 3 Mobile that indicates entirely differing results on a similar study.

m.Net blogs here if you’re interested.

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Yesterday after Russell Beattie blogged about the closing down of Mowser, I noticed a few mobile web is dead posts going around.

I’ll let you in on a little secret, the Mobile Web isn’t dead. It’s not entirely understood and some folks are finding that out. Why? It’s a different space. Today, the Mobile Web is a light weight extension of the web and so rendering full blown web apps as they appear on the desktop browser is not really feasible on a light weight extension.

Call me crazy but I don’t believe that’s what the mobile web is going to evolve into. That’s where some over-estimation has occurred in my opinion. We’re just not going to see the entire web and the web sites as they exist today go mobile and why should we?

It has the potential to be the ultimate social network if someone would create the killer mobile social app. While it’s only a lightweight extension other huge advantages like presence of you and others, location and mobility all exist. These are different dimensions that don’t exist on the desktop.

Wouldn’t it be better to have mobile social web apps that let you connect to businesses and individuals based on your location while you’re moving or stopping in new places vs. a mobile version of a desktop based web site?

People want applications like that. They also want to talk to the app not just the device. When will we see voice activated mobile web apps? If I’m on a mobile site and looking at a product I’m thinking of purchasing I want to be able to issue voice commands to move through the process, not type or click:

• buy it
• sign in
• sign out
• call me for payment details

That’s why it’s different. The mobile web apps we’re seeing now are mostly mini versions of existing web applications.

The mobile device is capable of so much more and the startups that figure that out are gonna have themselves some over the counter painkillers.

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Russell announced on his blog that he’s going to be shutting down Mowser. He doesn’t really say when and I don’t think it’s imminent. It looks like he could really use a buyer or investor that will hire him.

Mowser is pretty cool, it makes mobile sites on the fly. Heck, I might be interested in it…

I don’t know how much Russell has invested into this, though it sounds like he bet a lot on this project. In fact Russell sounds like he’s hurting so if you’re interesting in owning Mowser get in touch with Russell.

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This San Diego mini mobile mashup has a Ron Burgundy style retro logo. That looks hand drawn to me, almost looks like a colored pencil sketch. I like the logo and the mobile site, it appears to be ad supported via AdMob and they’ve got some mobile community staples like:

• Mobile Search
• Traffic
• Directions
• Stock
• Current Weather Conditions

This site has one other killer feature that you won’t find on most other mobile community sites. Any ideas what that might be? Here’s a hint.

Mobile Surf Reports! Awesome idea. These guys have a mini Surf Report Drill Down, check this out.

Drilling into North San Diego gets you the Oceanside report.

It looks like the surf reports are actually widgets integrated from Surfline.com. I couldn’t see that getting mashed in real time. Same goes for the Traffic Reports, that’s got to be getting mixed in on the server-side in the backend. And though it looks like the Weather stuff is coming across the wire from Microsoft it’s not, I believe that’s the phishing url service check that the browser makes.

Hopefully, someone from sdca.mobi will see that above screenshot and get themselves a favicon file to fix that 404 faux pas.

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mocoNews covered it. The mobile url is m.tmz.com. I’m not a celeb-gossip nut so this doesn’t really excite me but I give TMZ credit for making this easy for their fans. I was able to reach the mobile site on my phone very easily and without subscription or opt in obstacles.

I tried both PerezHilton and People Magazine to see how they fared. Perez, who apparently has a blog worth nearly $50M doesn’t appear to have a mobile site. I guess it’s not a huge surprise either. Even though Perez appears to be running Word Press, he could use Alex Kings Mobile Plugin to auto-mobilize his wp blog. I’ll bet I can guess why he isn’t though… Pictures and Video! Perez posts lots of both and the images aren’t really ideally sized for the mobile user so everything would have to be re-worked to fit the mobile user.

People does sport a mobile site but I don’t see this being a huge hit for mobile content geeks, it’s third party hosted at limelife.com and the sign-up process is old-school. Mobile users just want to go straight to the URL don’t they? So I wonder how successful this is for People.

Once you figure out how to get there… you need to select your carrier:

Opt in by Texting to the short code or subscribing at the AT&T Media Mall… either way you’re paying $3.99 per month. I have no idea why that is, the stories appear to be free to read on the regular people.com web site. People should just mobilize that stuff don’t you think?

Oh and I’ll bet if you send the short code and your Carrier or Phone isn’t supported you’re still going into the Marketing Database… nasty trick huh? I wouldn’t advocate doing that. That’s gonna make for some very unhappy mobile users that won’t soon forget you in a bad way. I’m gonna try it and not sign up to see what happens.

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A company that owns several shopping malls in South Africa recently teamed with a company called MobiBlitz, to install and maintain a network of bluetooth hotspots in nearly 72 shopping malls across the nation.

The bluetooth hotspot itself, dubbed a “MobiZone” is a full-service proximity marketing server that extends 100 meters, and networks together with other “MobiZones” to form a nationwide network operated from the company headquarters, providing flexibility for scheduling and adding content.  Advertisers are able to select as many or as few “MobiZones” on the network as they require.  Downloads by users are monitored in real-time, allowing for content to be changed at short notice.   As Stan Katz, co-founder of MobiBlitz describes…

…Now you can literally reach the people who count and accurately count the people you’ve reached. With Mobizone there is no possibility of inflating audience figures, clients know precisely how many consumers have actually seen their message. With pressure on budgets and return on investment the watchword of the day, there is no advertising medium that offers a more cost-effective solution.

MobiZones offer more than just a mobile marketing medium.   The offer things such as a store directories, special offers, movie trailers, news, weather, travel, etc.  Certain content, including an exclusive “Mobisode” from MTV, is available free of charge in all MobiZones.  User can even upload their own content to the zones as well.

With the concern of unwanted advertising being pushed upon patrons is apparent, MobiBlitz vows to have taken several steps to ensure the advertising is opt-in and that devices only receive requests once.  Devices will never get the same message twice, and if a user denies access, it logs the data and doesn’t attempt again for a pre-determined amount of time.

MobiBlitz is trying to create a large footprint by expanding it’s network as fast as possible.  Large brands like KFC, Wrigley, and MTV are already joining, and more are on the way.  It’s a smart idea, and a new angle on creating a content network to advertise to.  I think it should prove to be very effective, not only from an advertising standpoint, but also for a data-collection and statistics-tracking tool for large centers, like shopping malls.

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I got an email from MoFuse today, they reduced the price on their Pro Account to $3 per month. You get some added benefits with the Pro Account vs. the freebie too:

• Use your own domain
• Remove the MoFuse branding from your Mobile Site.
• Keep all of the advertising revenue

I may give this a whirl if I can get some of the mobile stats I’m looking for. I suspect if it’s on my domain that I’d be able to. Is that right David?

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