Rui on mobile apps:
"It may be early days, but I would expect developers to be a bit smarter than this by now. Yes, the iPhone and iPod Touch are ways to access the Internet, but every mobile device has two states: online and offline. And you either take offline into account, or you’re forgetting 50% of the possible use cases."
+1, +1, +1
Post-iPhone, mobile has gained a lot of credibility and we're seeing all sorts of folks get involved. This is a really good thing - but taking preconceptions of what's appropriate from the world of the fixed internet and applying them to mobile is not going to lead to viable mobile services... any more than taking brochures and putting them online was a good use of the web.
Battery life, intermittent connectivity, input constraints, context of use... all different, all unavoidable, all vital to consider when going mobile.
PC-heads always think of always-online apps. Yes, mobiles are also offline, too, and apps should take advantage of it if not only acknowledging that there are times I _don't_ want to go online (like on a plane). But forgetting 'offline' is also a problem with PC-heads as laptops and other mobile two-handed computers become more prevalent (ever try to do gmail on a plane?).
BUT, in addition to the standard considerations you mention at the end, I'll always add something about 'complementarity' - that the mobile is not an island but just another node in the use of an app. It always bugs me that folks make mobile-only apps, when a simple two-handed PC feature can bring wonders to the mobile app (and fortunately, at work, this attitude is improving).
Meh, you know what I mean.
Posted by: charlie | July 19, 2008 at 07:52 AM