The internet is now mobile
In between Blu Cantrell and Holly Valance on The Hits channel this morning, as I was hopelessly pounding a treadmill watching bits of me move in opposite directions, I saw a TV advert that I'd seen a few times before, but I wasn't sure what it was. If you're in the UK, its the one with cogs and springs and bits of watches falling out of the sky. I'd never seen it with the sound on, or to the end, so I had no idea what it was all about, until today, when a Vodafone logo appeared and then they boldly pronounce the 'The internet is now mobile' (their capitalisation).
I thought about that in the shower and seemed to remember that the Internet has been mobile for years. I remember having a mobile strategy for sun.com at least 5 years ago (which was, admittedly, a few loosely connected options held together with string). I also remember building sites for AvantGo, using their 
strange mobile language in about 2001. Heck, my old Sharp GX10 was able to trawl pretty much any site once I connected via GPRS, so what's different now?
The main difference appears to be the availability of mobile versions of the most popular sites out there. Which is turn, neatly packages up into an 'Internet service' - Vodafone Mobile Internet - for the network carrier. So Vodafone can now sell 'the Internet' to pay-as-you go or monthly contract customers because there's something to see, which of course there always was, but now its done properly. Not surprisingly, the mobile sites they feature as incentives to prospective customers include YouTube, Windows Live Hotmail, MySpace and Amazon (plus the BBC and Rightmove for the slightly older and aspirational types).
While none of this is a bad thing, of course, and most network suppliers are doing something similar, I was just intrigued by the reinvention of something that was already there, as a piece of marketing. Its an obvious catch, really, as nobody really understands the Internet on their mobile phone ('it says connect to Internet, but asks me to use WAP. what's WAP?'. 'Is this it? All I can see is a logo? What do you mean, scroll down? Oh, hang on, it's stoppped doing anything - it says "unsuppported type", what does that mean? etc.), so why not re-launch it?
Anyway, I rather like their little demonstration of how this new mobile Internet might be useful to you while you're trapped on a London street corner (Vodafone Street, W1 - funny).
Tunes: Robert Pollard: Hammer In Your Eyes
