Occasional Observations

At 3GSM it became clear that it's all about the content, which is exactly why RIM ascended into the super-league so quickly. Its BlackBerry service is all about delivering content to the handheld, and now comes the infotainment wave.

That's why 3GSM was all about mobile internet, in advertising space on the small screen, user-generated content, and on sharing this content.

As flat-rates for mobile data access become more of a norm, things can only get better - I'll surf more on my mobile, without having to panic about rogue pages with non-optimized Java apps, for example the 1.5MB WAP download from map24.com, just to show me a map of Barcelona center. At the roaming mobile data rate of ?0.39 per 50kb, this cost me ?12. I won't do that again - have already downloaded Google Maps for S60 Series 3.

There's one exception to all this: streaming video to the mobile still doesn't look like it's anywhere near ready for prime time. Too darned complicated at the back end, and most small-screen video is disappointing. With streaming video, it's a case of don't watch this space.