I was disappointed to hear about Mowser’s demise this past week, but nearly shocked to read the parting blog from one of its co-founders, Russell Beattie.  For those who haven’t read it, I summarized it in the title.  According to Russell the mobile Internet is dead, “…I think anyone currently developing sites using XHTML-MP markup, no Javascript, geared towards cellular connections and two inch screens are simply wasting their time, and I’m tired of wasting my time.”  He goes on to state that the traffic isn’t there and really won’t be until iPhones and other HTML browser-enabled devices become the norm.

Personally, I don’t know Russell, though I’ve met his other co-founder Mike Rowehl.  Both are clearly mobile savvy guys, and I’ve enjoyed reading their blogs and playing around with Mowser.  I always hate to hear about entrepreneurs failing, unless they are competitors.  In Russell’s case it sounds like he’s endured some pretty serious financial hardship.  Still, I’m surprised by how jaded his view of the mobile Internet is given the early success of many companies he’s familiar with such as Admob, Getjar, MyWaves, Radar, yours truly (MocoSpace).  Each of these sites are  generating 10’s of millions, and in MocoSpace’s case over 1 billion page views per month off of a unique audience in the low millions.  Those numbers may not stack up well to the Web…yet, but the trend certainly appears to be our friend.

The obstacles to mobile Internet adoption are substantial and include handsets, awareness, operator data price plans, and more.  But again, the trend is our friend here based on what I see everyday, ie better, cheaper handsets, growing awareness, and operators moving more aggressively to make the mobile Internet happen.  In fact based on the impressive traffic that some relatively small operators such as Metro PCS generate thanks to their open garden and simple, affordable data pricing, I spend a lot of my time salivating about what the next 2 years will bring.

Ever since my first foray into the mobile consumer industry, mobile game publisher JSmart, which I co-founded with mobile engineering guru Jamie Hall, I’ve been very suspect of people trying to predict US consumer behavior based on what happens in Japan.  So I agree with Russell, we won’t be Japan.  However, I also remember people scratching their heads here in 2001-2002 wondering if SMS texting would ever take off.  And many thought not.  In December 2007, over 1.5 billion messages were sent per day! Technologies may take longer to cross the chasm here, and take different shapes along the way, but in my opinion there is no doubt that the mobile Internet is both here and on its way.  Americans and consumers around the world will use the Internet on their phones, and it will be different in all sorts of ways than the wired Web.

People who argue for this notion of 1 Web make me feel stupid because frankly I have no idea what they are talking about.  Russell pulls out some M:Metric stats to support this idea that the iPhone proves there’s no chance for success.  “It would be easy to say that the iPhone “disrupted” the mobile web market, but in fact I think all it did is point out that there never was one to begin with.”  Without getting into why I think M:Metrics data are biased towards smart phones etc., I just have to wonder how he arrives at this conclusion when so much of what I read about are companies building iPhone-ready sites, applications, games, etc.  Aren’t the best iPhone sites ones that were built for it? If you’re building Internet sites to look great on a mobile device, isn’t it reasonable to call that site a mobile Internet site? Doesn’t it mean that even the coolest device, with the coolest HTML browser needs mobile Web sites to offer the best experience? Facebook thinks so, ESPN does, and so does a whole slew of other well run consumer Internet businesses.

Simply put, I don’t buy that a 2, 3, 4 inch screen is going to ever deliver the same experience as a 20inch screen, any more than I expect my friends to invite me over to watch the SuperBowl on their new MacBook Air while the 50inch hi-def flatpanel from Sears stays dark in the other room. Then again as a Giants fan in Patriots territory, I may not get invited to next year’s Super Bowl party anyhow.

People will expect, and they will get different content, formats, features, etc. for different devices.  Unless you expect the wired Web to stop improving and taking advantage of the horsepower that desktops and flatpanels deliver, I don’t get how someone could ever think there will be a unified Internet experience across such a range of capabilities. In my opinion, the bottom line is that people are and will continue to develop new sites, services, applications, etc. specifically for mobile devices, and they will be different than those browsed on machines with 5-10x larger screens and orders of magnitude more power and bandwith.  Just as Walmart had to build a website as a distinct experience from its bricks and mortar experience, it will build a mobile site.  In fact, just the other day I noticed that Sears now offers mobile phone alerts.  It’s very safe to say that Sears has not been considered an innovative company in my lifetime, though prior to it they did reinvent American commerce through the mail-order and catalog business.   Now, if Sears is tipping its hat to mobile on its homepage, I think you may want to think twice before putting any nails in the mobile Web coffin.

For Russell and all fellow entrepreneurs, I end with one of my favorite quotes from Theodore Roosevelt:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat