Not all mobile phones provide the web experience an iPhone does, requiring site designers to address some limitations. The Hyperfactory's CEO explains.

The iPhone gives users a whole new mobile web experience, as any proud owner will tell you. The silky Mobile Safari browser that allows screen-stroking and finger-pinching navigation makes the iPhone's 2x3 inch screen seem like a great gleaming lake next to the paddling pool of a conventional 1.5x2 inch display.

But does this mean we can forget about developing specialized interfaces and tailored experiences for the mobile web? Does the iPhone's much-heralded cleverness mean that there's no real difference between surfing via a handheld device and on a PC or Mac at home? In other words, does one size fit all?

Some believe so. But in fact the answer is definitively, categorically no. Whatever the magical capabilities of Mobile Safari, we need to continue to develop a specific interface for the mobile phone.

First off, there's a bandwidth issue. The iPhone is fine when it hits a wi-fi hotspot, but when it's downloading through the AT&T network, the result is, in the words of the New York Times' David Pogue, "painfully slow." And people in their day-to-day lives are not blanketed by wi-fi, and they won't be for years, so this is not going to change overnight.

This makes browsing the normal web via the iPhone or any other WAP-enabled phone difficult; when one goes to view a website designed for a daily paper like the Times, for example, the person expects it to download fast, not through the equivalent of a 56K modem.

And even as mobile bandwidth increases, there is going to continue to be a gap between bandwidth available for browsing via a phone and bandwidth available for a desktop computer. Cellular online bandwidth will always lag the bandwidth piped in through DSL and cable at home, and people designing websites will continue to push at the limit of what's available at home, leaving an important capability gap between the two kinds of devices.

The screen size is another, more serious problem. That same website is designed to be observed through a 17-inch screen, not through something the size of a business card. Most web designers think it's a silly idea to take the internet and try to look at it on your phone. Even pages loaded fast need to be viewed by scrolling not just up and down, like on a computer, but left and right, and zooming in and out too. Navigation becomes a three-dimensional, instead of a one-dimensional, process. With or without fancy touch-screen capabilities, this is like trying to read a comic book under the covers with a penlight -- the novelty soon wears off.

Quite aside from download speed and screen size, there are other ways that a regular internet site is not designed for a mobile phone. Those data-heavy pages have Flash, Advanced Java, rich content, all of which takes up a lot of real estate as you hyperlink deeper into the information jungle. Again, you're simply struggling to navigate pages designed for view via faster download speeds. For mobile users, it's crucial to minimize the number of clicks and directions needed to get to the content they want as quickly as possible. Someone might be inclined to spend two hours surfing the web at home; but on the move, the idea is to get the information fast.

The simple, non-negotiable fact is this: People want to browse the internet on their cell phones differently from how they browse via a big screen planted on a desk. They want to snack on content, not sit down to a full information banquet. The iPhone has boosted awareness of what's possible in mobile web technology, which is great; but on the other hand, it has put expectations out there that are not accurate.

When it comes to web browsing, one size doesn't fit all. We need a new understanding of how to treat this mobile medium differently. Websites don't have to be redesigned from the ground up, but they do need to be altered to capture the growing mobile audience out there. You can use the same ideas and a lot of the same content, but it all needs to be treated quite differently.

The only way forward is to make sure mobile phone users have access to an internet experience they can genuinely carry with them. In Japan and Korea, this is already happening, with sophisticated mobile content that has been formed to fit a 2-inch screen. Let's hope the United States catches up soon.

Derek Handley is CEO and co-founder, The Hyperfactory. Read full bio.