Mike Arrington has an interesting post over at TechCrunch which covers Dave Winer’s recent attempts to bring web content to the mobile phones. The juxtaposition of the two viewpoints is telling. Dave’s solution involves stripping things to the bare minimum and giving that to users in a plain, readable way – a noble goal. Because of the load times associated with bringing web content to mobile phones, and the horrendous experience that exists now, this idea could gain a lot of traction. However on the other hand, you have Mike Arrington, a man who lives and dies based on the advertising. Mike’s quote is gold:
Check out NYTimes, BBC and TechCrunch in Dave’s new, stripped down format. I’ve been reading TechCrunch this way on my phone for a couple of weeks. Most of the graphics and (sniff) all of the advertising is stripped out, but at least it keeps the reader sane.
Mike, it really doesn’t have to be that way. There is absolutely no reason why viewing web content has to be bad, and lacking in the full experience of your brand. This is where I see the glaring hole that Flash Lite can fill (or even the theoretical Flex Mobile). As it is put on more phones, there will be more opportunities for people like Mike, with high profile websites, to provide their content to mobile devices with the general experience in tact. With Flash Lite, you can take the content, brand it, and present advertising alongside it in a way that isn’t obtrusive. With Flash Lite, you can build the experience from the ground up and not have to worry about the limitations of the mobile browser.
With the importance of advertising to sites like TechCrunch, that is a powerful use case.
[tags]TechCrunch, Dave Winer, Mike Arrington, Adobe, Flash Lite, Flash Platform, Mobile[/tags]
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