…the internet!

Yes, that’s right. Not S60, UIQ, Linux, iPhone OS, PalmOS, Brew or Windows Mobile. No, the net is what will provide the core of any mobile service of the future.

I know I’m contradicting myself somewhat compared to what I wrote the other day about Java and JSR248, Mobile Service Architecture becoming the framework for mobile applications. I still believe this to be the case.

However, the functionality a generic “mobile 2.0″ application requires from the native phone OS is rather limited. The bulk of most services will be on a web server. Google Maps Mobile, Widsets, Opera Mini or Gmail are all good examples of extremely capable mobile applications supported by a strong web service. These are all java applications, but as web browsers in mobile phones grow more capable we will see XHTML or Flash Lite-based applications. Widgets, if you like that term.

Even hardware intense applications such as video players or camera-integrated applications can be written with a simple API such as JSR234 (advanced multimedia) and/or JSR211 (content handler API) in Java.

It’s really only a thin slice of the mobile application market that requires full access to the native OS. If you absolutely feel you have to have this access, considering how full blown PCs are available the size of PDAs, I’d almost like to say: do it in Windows Vista in stead!

The majority of mobile applications will be web, web, web (by that I mean it will run on a web server) and then maybe some Java, XHTML or Flash Lite on top. Developers used to developing for the PC web browser might think of them as thin clients. Mobile phones on the other hand are ultrathin clients. This means the server has to do more work and there has to be two different GUIs to the same service: one thin and one ultrathin.

The problem with todays phones is not about access to the native OS, but rather how the web or downloaded applications are second grade citizens within the phone GUI. This, however, will change.

Nokias recent move to integrate a widget platform in S60 is a sign of exactly what I’m talking about. Sony Ericssons multitasking java and standby midlets are some other and so is the Apple iPhone. Good and useful widgets are really just a small window to a much larger web service.

So forget the mobile OS-war. Any phone that has a mature java environment and/or a good web browser or a widget environment can be used to build great mobile services. The underlying OS really doesn’t matter.

To paraphrase Clinton: it’s the web, stupid!

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