2008 - The Year of the Mobile User

So today is an exciting day - my company is formally announcing its Series-A investment round by Benchmark Capital. We were somehow lucky enough to get in front of Mitch Lasky, and the rest, as they say, is history. We’re all very excited to have Benchmark behind us and especially to have Mitch in our corner.

And as such, today seems like the perfect time to finally start filling up the pages of this blog. There will not be any official company banter, but rather my own personal views on the mobile industry and the issues we all face. So to get things started, I’m kicking it off with a look ahead at 2008.

The Year of the iPhone

2008 will see the shipment of millions more iPhones, and we should see the arrival of the iPhone SDK any day now. However, 2008 is not about the iPhone. The iPhone is certainly one of the most critical catalysts of change to date in the mobile industry - but it is not the final answer. Of course the iPhone is a well choreographed experience - but it is the same experience for everyone. Later this year you should be able to load some Apple-blessed apps through iTunes, but how willing will Apple be to let you really customize your iPhone? I think the iPhone may well be to Apple what the RAZR was to Motorola - an incredible catalyst for change but a difficult trick to repeat. So I’m not proclaiming 2008 the year of the iPhone - but I am thankful for its arrival and its disruptive force on an industry that has been lacking any real innovation for some time.

The Year of Android

2008 should see the shipment of the first Android device, if we are to believe the early bally-hoo coming from certain manufacturers. But Android is going to have a lot of growing pains I think before it gets to where a lot of people already think it is. What people don’t seem to understand is just what it takes to get an operator to certify a handset and allow it on the network (Yes, I realize you can pop in your sim and turn it on - but I’m referring to an operator actually carrying the handset specifically for use on its network). For every handset, there must be a manufacturer who is willing to stake its reputation and its pocketbook and stand behind that handset for a deployment. What a lot of people don’t know is what happens to a manufacturer if it releases a device which has problems in the field. The operator will hold the manufacturer accountable - operationally and financially. That is fine for the way things work today - each manufacturer stands behind its product and accepts any ramifications from any particular device - such as bugs, customer service issues, and yes, even recalls. But how will this work with Android? And what about support for the operators’ existing J2ME catalog? And what about the basic apps like phonebook, calendar, etc.? And… And… Without too much more detail - you get my point. I have every faith these issues will get worked through - but they are not all simple issues and it will take time. Its not easy releasing a complete mobile software stack, but ultimately if Google is able to unify the Linux phone stack it will be a good thing for all of us (except probably the Linux phone stack vendors

The Year of the Mobile User

And so I say that 2008 will be the Year of the Mobile User - and I say that partly because of what the iPhone has done, partly from what Android may begin to do, and certainly from what my own company intends to do - and that is shake up this industry to the point where we once again put the mobile user at the forefront of what is most important. Its not about how thin the handset is, or how many G’s of bandwidth you have, or even WiFI or WiMAX or anything else. This space is about making use of the most personal computing device there is - our mobile phone - and creating an experience that is as unique and personal as the individual user. That is where we need to get to, and 2008 will be all about getting there.

Posted by Mark February 2008

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