It wasn't too long ago that the Droid was being hailed as a possible iPhone killer by the media, and now just two months after its release, we have a new Android-based device being nominated the new iPhone killer. I guess that's how you really know you are on top of the mountain: each new killer device is supposed to knock you off.
Google's unveiling of the Nexus One does show the future of the web as being quite mobile. It's not a stretch to say it is the most technologically advanced smartphone in the world, with a 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of ram and a screen supporting 800x480 resolution. Of course, three months from now a new Android-based device will no doubt take smartphones a step further and be hailed as the next iPhone killer, but for now, we can enjoy the Nexus One.
And people are enjoying their Android phones. The iPhone dominates mobile web traffic with about 50% of all mobile data going to the iPhone or iPod Touch, but Android is quickly catching up. As of October of 2009, Android phones claimed 20% of the mobile web traffic. That's quite a nice chunk, but it's not finished growing. From October to December, during the time of Droid's release, the Android platform grew by 97%, which means it is quickly catching up to the iPhone.
What's this mean?
Websites are no longer going to be able to ignore the mobile market. As more and more people surf the web on the go, the web will have to adapt. And these modern mobile web browsers don't need the watered-down experience they are often presented with in mobile versions of popular sites. The Nexus One supports Adobe Flash 10.1, which means it can show pretty much any website out there, and it has the screen resolution to make the site look good.
This presents a dilemma to developers. Certainly, many mobile users are using phones that don't support rich Internet sites. But the vast majority of the mobile traffic can display rich content, though the popular iPhone still doesn't support Flash. And as we head into the future, those devices that cannot display full websites will become fewer and far between.
But that doesn't mean mobile devices can be ignored under the assumption that they can easily display the same web page as their desktop and laptop counterparts. The idea of 'Mobile 2.0' is all about the web recognizing that the client is a mobile device and making use of the unique advantages of our smartphones, such as the GPS capability and the camera.
As the Android platform takes off, it'll be interesting to see how the web evolves to meet these new challenges.