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The Mobile Web Reasons why it sucks Pin-Chin Huang Columbia University COMS E6125 WHIM Introduction The Mobile Web The World Wide Web as accessed from mobile devices such as cell phones and PDAs Reports in 2007 More than 60% of U.S. wireless users own an Internetenabled mobile device, but only 5% of them actually use the mobile Internet Why? Mobile devices, wireless carriers, and the Web itself. WHIM Spring 2008 Mobile Devices: Problems Screen Size Users want a smaller device, but a larger screen Processor & Memory Need beefy hardware to render web pages: CSS stylesheets, DOM manipulation, multimedia, client-side scripting, etc. Input Capabilities Numerical keypad not enough for E-mail or IM applications WHIM Spring 2008 Mobile Devices: Problems Browser Behaviors Different browsers (Opera, Nokia, Openwave, Pocket IE, NetFront, Minimo, Safari) have different support for XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, frames, background images, SSR, max page size, etc. CNN.com MSDN.com Cost Smart phones/PDAs typically cost $400 – $800 WHIM Spring 2008 Mobile Devices: Possible Solutions Rollable Display Handheld Projector Scheduled to commercialize in 2008 Boost processor speed & memory But what about heat dissipation? QWERTY keypad Wait for someone to unify standards… WHIM Spring 2008 Wireless Networks: Problems Slow WAP = Wait And Pay; GPRS/EDGE = 10 to 20 KB/s at best 3G: theoretical rate 1Mbps, but often falls short of expectations Scott Karp describes his 3G experience: “It would have been faster, literally, to call my wife at home and ask her to look it up on a real broadband connection.” Expensive Pay per kilobyte but people are used to unlimited surfing Monthly Charge Data Limit Additional Charge per KB Charge for d/ling a 4MB mp3 AT&T Wireless $34.99 20 MB $0.004 $16 AT&T Wireless $60 Unlimited $0 Free Time Warner $29.95 Unlimited $0 Free WHIM Spring 2008 Wireless Networks: Possible Solutions WiMAX 802.16 Practical rate 10 Mbps 2x faster than cable, 6x faster than DSL Sprint Nextel deploying nationwide network in 2008 Intel’s 5th generation Centrino and Nokia’s new handsets to support WiMAX in 2008 as well 3GPP Long Term Evolution Goals: 172.8 Mbps downlink, 86.4 Mbps uplink First testing successful in November 2007 (by Nokia) AT&T and Verizon Wireless planning to migrate toward LTE Initial deployment planned in 2010 Cost? Depends on the wireless carriers… WHIM Spring 2008 The Web: Problems Web Presentation Sites not formatted for small screens endless scrolling & zooming “So, great, you can jam the entire NYtimes.com onto the screen – got a magnifying glass?” Device Fragmentation H/W diversity: screen size, processor, keypad, stylus, etc. S/W diversity: OS platforms, browsers, APIs User Context Most websites are not context/location-aware “When I visit Costco on a mobile device, what are the chances I’m going to shop? I want store locations, hours, and phone numbers, and I don’t want to stumble through four slow-loading screens to get that info.” WHIM Spring 2008 W3C One Web Principle “Making the same information and services available to users irrespective of the device they are using.” Do Nothing Pray SSR renders well Rely on HTML transcoders Use Raw HTML Remove styling and images IYHY.com provide raw rendering service Develop Handheld CSS Stylesheets nytimes.com viewed with IYHY develop a CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) for each targeted screen size WHIM Spring 2008 Multi-Web Practice “Create associated web pages that will give good user experiences in several of the most popular devices.” .mobi Domain Top-level domain for mobile-friendly sites Backed by Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Vodafone Alternative URIs Users are redirected to a URI appropriate to their device Requires browser sniffing WHIM Spring 2008 I Would Choose… Multi-Web Practice Web presentation problem is eliminated Device fragmentation can be addressed Specific needs of mobile users can be met (user context) Alternative URIs .mobi breaks URI address space unnecessary Not every company can get their .mobi domain name E.g. nytimes.mobi is taken by someone else WHIM Spring 2008 Conclusion Facts Mobile devices becoming faster New display technologies coming to market 4G networks being deployed To make m-web “less sucky” we should… Unify mobile web standards Lower price for accessing wireless data networks Adopt multi-web practice Avoid breaking address space by adopting alternative URIs WHIM Spring 2008 Conclusion Mobile devices outnumbers PCs 20:1 by worldwide number Mobile web poised to replicate the success of Internet WHIM Spring 2008