It turns out my prediction was totally right! I mentioned in a previous post about MWC Barcelona (Mobile World Congress) that we are going to see some motion in the direction of a light rich mobile internet, and Adobe and friends did not disappoint with the Open Screen Project

In retrospect, it was not that hard of a call to make. Between the iPhone, Palm Pre, Android, and refreshed Symbian phones the Western World is finally seeing some great multimedia prowess in their phones.

The premise behind this movement is to assure that users have a seamless experience between their various devices. Makes sense: I don’t want to go to a rich flash site and then see a dinky WAP site when I go to the same address on my mobile browser.

What I have to mention though is that we are a few leaps away from this dream. Standardization is major issue. Its hard enough for a developer to have a site look identical on every single desktop browser available, much less their mobile counterparts.

2009, then, will not be the year of ubiquitous seamless experiences on mobile platforms. What I hope we will see is an increasing amount of resources behind enabling rich content consumption on mobile platforms.

It is this humble gent’s opinion that entities that will want to be forward with mobile engagement will do is create customized experiences depending on the platform. In essence, create different sites for every platform. We are already seeing this with the iPhone. There is a fantastic plug-in that allows Wordpress admins to generate wholly different sites when iPhones visit their domains. It is called WPtouch and it is a harbinger of mobile content.

Those online destinations with a bit more oomph (development resources) actually build custom iPhone apps that allow the user to have an optimized experience on their iPhone. The Boy Genius Report is a perfect example of this. This is the way it should be… the iPhone does not have a 15-inch screen and optimized layouts allow for the most user friendly way of consuming data.

If I was to build a site I wanted to attract mobile users to, I would essentially create multiple sites. One would be for the desktop audience and others for the different kinds of mobile browsing platforms available.

That’s right. If someone is using mobile Opera, the Nokia S60 browser, the BlackBerry browser or (in the near future) the Palm Pre browser, they would each get a different site that is optimized for screen size and performance of the device they are using to access the site. Why shouldn’t they?

The point is that creating a pleasant mobile experience will draw users to your destination since they will enjoy consuming content on your site more than a non mobile enabled competitor site.

Are there any out-of-box CMS systems that are optimized for mobile users? I haven’t seen any. Shoot me an email or leave a comment if you know of some!

To date, I am a huge fan of the paper PDA (I’ll touch on why in another post) for my to dos and notes. Meetings, however, are kept on mobile devices. Google Calendar, BlackBerry, and Outlook meeting invites rule the day.

If you are not a couch potato and not a cubicle dweller, you meet people. You take a meeting here.. .a meeting there. You might be meeting someone for lunch. If you are active and up and about you are ruled by your mobile device calendaring.

Here is an idea. RIM, Apple, Palm, Microsoft, Nokia… Listen up!! I am giving away a free idea so that your customers love your devices more.

If I have a meeting in 30 minutes, my Blackberry tells me “Hey you have a meeting in 30 minutes”. That’s it! What a waste!

How about a single click option to send a “I’m running 20 minutes late” email to everyone on the meeting invite… and automatically send a text message to them as well if they are in your phone book. This saves valuable rush hour/vital  phone call minutes on actually getting there on time and finishing the conversation without having to send an email or make extra apologetic phone calls. Shit happens. People run late. Everyone understands… now how about a mobile device that eases the process?

You are welcome.