Are you late for Mobile 2.0...
If you haven't heard of Web 2.0, don't bother to read this. If you do, well this is happening and is (going to) already dramatically (change) changing the mobile world. It is defining the the way web is consumed in the near future. Rapid changes in mobile access broadband technologies like 3G, UMTS, VOIP and recent WiFi enabled phones is already merging the differences in standards of fixed and wireless phones services. As devices become hybrid and access methods becoming cheaper day by day, mobile web will become the dominant web access platform.

To understand Mobile 2.0, its good to look at something that revolutionized the PC based web platform - "Web 2.0".

Web 2.0?
I had this question since years and i never understood the value of what it can do to me as an end-user. May be because i hate facebook, Orkut or any other social site which have each terra gigs of use-less content that is hardly appealing to me. Well, this is my personal opinion.

I then tried looking at it from a business perspective and you know the value of these open services - Flickr, youtube, facebook and blah blah. 3 billion for Facebook!

The protocol of Web 2.0 is simple -open standards & inviting to everyone.
To put a definition around this; This is more of user intelligence or cashing on the dumbness and a far less highlight on the smart technologies that enable users to apply their human semantics to create what they use/want the most in their day-to-day life. End result, you get more intelligent (may be foolish :)) web.

For the mobile world, its not exactly the same as Web 2.0 due to current limitations like continuous connectivity, network usage costs or even the device screen size & capabilities. But this is going to change soon, well i'm already late/wrong, it is already changing with Wimax, Bluetooth or even unlimited Data plans from the carriers.

What consists of Mobile 2.0

• User Experience
• Openess
• Intelligent SOA implementations
• Integrated Search
• Seamless integration with Device capabilities (camera, geo tagging, etc)
This list can grow as new innovations happen.

Mobile 2.0 is going to break the walled gardens soon and carriers are getting ready for the change as it unstoppable. Apple also opened up its SDK to be open and be gloabally innovative. IPhone and Google Android based TMobile phone are already a step inside the Mobile 2.0 and trying to eveolve further deep into it...

So what is all this got to do with your business-

Product company - I cannot imagine a product company not having web presense today. The time is already ripe to be mobile compliant. If you're in ecommerce, you're late. Before its too late, catch the wagon.

Product services - If you're not in the mobile product services, you're late. For those who're already into this business, here are a few things to consider when developing applications that survive the ever changing mobile world.

• User experience is everything, so make it the top priority. Of course, this is the biggest challenge today.
• Build solutions based on pluggable model & open standards. SOA is the key.
• RSS/OPML and other web standards are crawling into the mobile world, so be ready to plug-in.
If you cannot innovate, at least try borrowing ideas from Apple & Google who are hyper-active in this.

None of the above - try the faceless book idea and i'll put my grandma's photo with a stupid boring story and you can sell yourself for a billion! Don't forget to localize the crap else the red indians may not blog with their dreadful stories :)