Mowser is dead, the mobile web lives on.

Filed under: Internet, Windows Mobile, Web services, BlackBerry, Mobile Minute, iPhone

Mowser is dead, the mobile web lives on.

by Brad Linder Apr 15th 2008

Mowser is a tool that helps you cram full web pages onto the tiny web browser on your cellphone. Just go to the Mowser web site, type in the URL you want to read, and Mowser will strip away all the unnecessary visual information that looks fine on a desktop web browser but bogs down your cellphone.

We first covered Mowser when it launched about a year ago, and we're sad to tell you that founder Russell Beattie says the product is "at the end of its life in its current form."

Beattie reports that his company has been having a difficult time raising funds and has been making very little money from advertising. Rather than regroup, Beattie is giving up because he says he doesn't believe in the "mobile web" anymore.

That's kind of sad, because the service was fairly useful if you've got an old school browser and an old school phone, something interesting is happening with the mobile web. Cellphone users either don't bother signing up for web service at all, or if they do they're starting to flock towards devices like the iPhone which can support full web pages without any Mowser-style squashing. The interesting thing about products like Mowser is that they're designed for yesterday's mobile web, not tomorrow's. If Beattie had launched his company in 2004 instead of 2007 it might have been successful. But today the distinctions between the mobile web and the full web are starting to blur, which leaves services like Mowser out in the cold.

Tags: mobile-web, mowser

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Steven said 11:09AM on 4-15-2008

Oh....I wondered why they hadn't been showing any ads lately. :-/ Oh well, guess it's back to Google Mobilizer for my treo surfing needs

dave said 1:29PM on 4-15-2008

...so what's going to happen to it? will he open source it so that others can continue development?

Dean Collins said 8:13PM on 4-15-2008

Wow - one guy decides that startup life isn't for him and this is supposed to throw a whole shadow over the industry.....hmmm I don’t think so.

I like Russell, I've been a long time reader of his blog and an occasional user of his Mowser application.

I think the key point here is that...."Mowser was filling a temporary problem", with the release of the iPhone and the imminent massive model variants of the Android OS on the Horizon and the sure but steady improvements in the Windows Mobile 6 OS I think Russell is throwing in the towel as handsets are getting "good enough to no longer need Mowser".

Now do I think he threw it in too early with only 12 months operation - sure but thats because I'm a serial startup entrepreneur with 2 listed companies under my belt.

As an employee of www.Amethon.com one of the worlds first mobile browser specific analytics applications just for mobile content, I for one, am seeing huge growth in mobile content.

Amethon's clients are seeing traffic build month on month, and yes I think a lot of that has to do with better quality handsets and better quality browsers and most importantly higher data speeds with somewhat more reasonable flat rate unlimited data plans.

With a better user experience more people are finding the convenience of accessing content on the move .....or standing still but getting it right where they are standing with a mobile device never far from their hand ....

The best part about this mobile content is the volume of advertising coming into the space is funding a better user experience, and with tools like Amethon Mobile Analytics users analytics information and a solid roi can be demonstrated against this advertising spend.

Am I sad to see Mowser go, yes - Will Russell bounce, for sure - one of the smartest pioneers in the mobile business, Do I think USA consumers are a little behind eastern consumer patterns in mobile content consumption - YES but that has more to do with carriers and handsets than personal desires and usage patterns.

The mobile space is just taking off, with all the fallouts and successes that there was in the desktop browser wars in the 1990's.

Watch this space and get in early......your customers are waiting.

Regards,
Dean Collins
www.Amethon.com

Bluestocking said 3:59PM on 4-19-2008

It occurs to me that Google Mobilizer is probably the primary culprit behind Mowser's downfall -- Google, after all, does have considerably more brand-name cachet and drawing power than Mowser does.

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