Mobile Web

Mobile Web

The Mobile Web refers to the access to wireless data services using a mobile device such as as cell phones, PDAs, and other portable gadgets connected to a mobile telecoms network. Access does not require a desktop computer, nor a fixed landline connection. The service can be to the traditional World Wide Web or to any one of more limited service platforms such as WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), i-Mode and Blackberry services.
While many think that mobile web or mobile internet means access to the traditional internet using a mobile phone or device, this is not the case. The access can be to the traditional internet, but it can be to less than the internet, as typically is with WAP services, or it can be to more than the internet, to data services that do not even exist on the traditional internet, such as SMS text messaging and ringtones. The mobile web is similar to, but not identical to the traditional internet and World Wide Web.
However, Mobile Web access today still suffers from interoperability and usability problems. This is partly due to the small physical size of the screens of mobile devices and partly due to the incompatibility of many mobile devices with not only computer operating systems, but also the format of much of the information available on the Internet.