Next Generation Wireless Applications: Creating Mobile Applications in a Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 World, 2nd Edition

5.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter is about the Internet and the role it plays in our mobile services model. Having introduced our mobile ecosystem in Chapter 2, the Internet may seem a curious place to start. We could have addressed devices first, perhaps the wireless network, or maybe even the content network having stressed its importance in previous chapters. We are going to start with the Internet, particularly the Web, due to its particular significance in influencing the shape of next generation mobile services. At the end of Chapter 4, I suggested how Web 2.0 should be viewed as a platform within our mobile ecosystem. Its advantages and power are impossible to ignore. I don't think any operator denies this now, so I shan't spend any more time discussing its importance. Of course, how the incorporation of Web 2.0 into the mobile ecosystem leads to increased revenue is another question.

A lot of the power of the Web is embedded in its networking power (see sidebar ‘The power of networks’).

Sidebar: The power of networks

Charles Boyd¹ identified three maxims that affect how businesses will have to manage their activities for competing in the Internet era, but these truisms are generally applicable to all aspects of networked life and apply to mobility. Boyd mentions Moore's Law, Metcalfe's Law and Coase's exposition on business transactions.

Moore's Law Gordon Moore is founder of Intel Corporation. He elucidated an observation that in its revised form became known as Moore's Law ...