Editor's Corner

The future of the mobile web: Which side are you on?

Exciting times for the web as Microsoft presents two very different visions for how the web will be seen on mobile devices. One vision (ZenZui) is a novel expansion of the concept seen in WAP--a separate web page served especially for small screens. The other (Deepfish) is, I think, more exciting because it uses the wireless device to gain its own unique view into an existing web page. In these two products you have an essential view of the split in the ways in which wireless devices are seen in the enterprise: Along one side, they are special devices to be used in limited ways; along the other, they are simply very mobile tools for doing all the things that can be done from any workstation. Deciding which side of the split your organization will follow will inform the decisions you make on deployment, and precisely how deeply integrated into your infrastructure wireless devices may become. My take? Full integration is the winning path. It requires more work (and more thought), but the payoff will be far more rewarding. - Curtis