If You Don't Host Mobile Content, Your Customers Won't Reach Majority of Web Users

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo says there will be 4 billion mobile phone subscriptions by 2011. He says mobile content - ranging from music downloads to video to satellite navigation services - will drive rapid growth.

Oliver Starr from MobileCrunch is looking forward to a future of "4.5g phones with 100 GB hard drives, 10 megapixel cameras, GigE connectivity, and near field technology that connects to any PC".

The future is on its way: Cingular announced its MySpace partnership today. For $2.99/month, customers will be able to view/edit MySpace content via their handsets. Verizon Wireless recently signed a deal to offer YouTube content via its $15/month VCast service. GMail went mobile a few weeks ago. Sprint Nextel plans to include the Java app on some of its handsets.

But the market's still wide open. (Even if mobile net neutrality has already become an issue.) HipMojo says the worldwide mobile content market will grow from $16.7 billion today to to $78 billion as early as next year. (Ok, I'm not sure I believe this particular figure.) By 2011, CNet says cellphone porn alone will be worth $3.3 billion (up from $1.4 billion in 2006), GigaOm reports that mobile social networks will grow from 50 million members to 174 million, and Informa's market research shows that mobile advertising will be a $11.35 billion business (versus $871 million today).

Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz recently pointed out that a majority of tomorrow's Internet users will access the web through mobile handsets rather than PCs. So isn't it every web hosting provider's responsibility to help its customers reach this audience by becoming intimately familiar with the fine points of mobile-enabling traditional websites?

PS - Oh yeah, hosting providers should make their own sites mobile accessible, too. It looks like SoftLayer's new mini-portal went over really well.

PPS - Just remembered that Caspio's app builder let's you create mobile forms. I've been meaning to check that out.