Web 2.0 is latest and hottest buzzword in web based services arena, and it is making some serious headlines in every geek and business magazine. So what’s it all about and how it affects on mobile devices and applications, not to mention application development arena.

For me personally, web 2.0 is a reminder of times in late 1990’s, when portals, vortals and social related websites (like GeoCities, AOL etc) made their first big boom appearance . It’s also a reminder of times when business people got carried away with future promises and invested unreasonable sums to any project; just to be part of web 1.0 mania. And it’s also a reminder of dotcom crash, that came after people realized web 1.0 was not the money making machine they believed in.

So what has changed since the last attempt and why web 2.0 can success?

• Internet has become a commotidy
  In late 1990’s Internet was not not a commotidy - only few people had Internet access at home, and pricing was based on bytes and seconds… In 2005, average european consumer spend 10 hours online, and the era of fixed monthly fees makes usage of Internet attractive.
• Mobile Internet experience is reality
  In 1990’s mobile computing was a very primitive and expensive experience compared to current situation…. Currently we have affordable devices, WIFI, etc. issues that enable a true 24/7 Internet access at relatively low cost if required.
• Better tools for building communities
  Web 2.0 is based on communities and possibilities to customize your personal profile (a very important issue often neglected) . With web 1.0 this required at least medium knowledge of HTML, not to mention other obstacles for casual user… With Web 2.0 the tools and communites have matured. For example installing a blog is simply copying files /pushing buttons, making personal profiles unique is as easy as saying ABC.
• Better user experience
  “Keeping it simple” is part of the modern tools, but it is also a major part of web 2.0 user philosophy. Web 2.0 is based on old technologies, but the basic idea is to drop the legacy weight (i.e. may not work on older browsers), make the best of current technologies and leap to 21st century. As an end result should be a more robust and dynamic user interface, with enhanced user experience.

So how mobile device manufacturers answer to web 2.0 call?

• One Internet
  With new mobile devices, there is no need for separate WAP/mobile internet access. One internet, one set of techniques, one set of services messaging with each other.
• Highspeed Wireless broadband becomes commotidy
  In order for people to use mobile services, the use must be attractive both in user experience way and also with price… 3G has the capacity to provide transfer speeds of up to 300 kbps. Many of the new devices have even faster connections with inbuild WiFi capabilities. And in future, HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) networks will brofide transmission speeds of up to 10MB per second… And luckily, the mobile internet is also moving away from fees based on bytes and seconds.
• Better applications
  Mobile browsers have evolved significantly, and withing few years time they can be equal with PC based browsers.For example Nokia S60 browser has inbuilt support for XHTM, CSS, AJAX, RSS,etc. Web 2.0 is built on. (Reminder: read the mobile browser roundup)
• Better devices
  A lot of mobile web 2.0 success is related to physical user experience. If the devices perform badly and are uncomfortable to use, then mobile web 2.0 will fail… Current mobiles can already provide QVGA screens with up to 16 million colors, QWERTY-keyboards, stylus etc. tools for making a better user experience. However, most of these are available only in more expensive models. The day these hit mainstream models, will be the day mobile web 2.0 gets a huge boost.
• Integrated services
  A mobile without services is good if you only want to call, but for everything else you need services and programs. While most mobile phone have inbuilt services like calendar, instant messaging etc., these are against the essence of web 2.0 - be connected to others. Therefore most mobiles ship with mobile service provider (MSP) services integrated. For example Nokia has teamed up with Yahoo! Go Mobile to provide instant messaging, photos, search, calendar etc. community features. All end user needs to know/do is push the button, and start using the services.
• Business 2.0
  Each generation must have a killer application, and with web 2.0 it seems to be podcasting and blogging. Both are still more or less geek stuff especially in mobiles, but they will be mainstream as business 2.0 models evolve.

As a summary, all issues listed above provide an interesting ground to develop new breed in mobile web services. One example could be the dating application or mobile adsense I wrote few months ago, but the possibilities are limitless, and totally dependant on imagination.

Like most cautious people, I think web 2.0 craze is a temporary phenomenon, and many will lose their money while playing the game. Unlike with web 1. 0, I don’t believe it will end up in crash. Instead it will evolve to web 2.1 - the required update release. When we get there , the web /business 2.0 hype has settled down, and we can see the winners and losers.