…listen to me, getting excited about the “mobile web” ;)

What I’d hope to see in Safari-mobile is the ability to read WAP sites and XHTML sites, because that would allow you the best of both worlds.

I think you could provide a better experience though a specific handheld stylesheet. But, again, it’s more than just that. It’s more about the content that gets served than it is the style really.

I do think what you could do is offer, in Safari, a way to override the handheld style…

Which gets me wondering how the iPhone will handle the “handheld” media type for CSS. Will Safari use that if it’s present or will it just use the “screen” media type? Thinking a little crazy for a second, perhaps someone could develop a sort of universal widget that could handle all the “handheld” media types for a website. Then that specific experience would load up in a widget interface while the “screen” experience would remain within the Safari browser.

In a way people should be providing an experience that’s a bit different on mobile devices. At least that’s the optimum.

You can show me a great looking NY Times on an iPhone running Safari and I’ll still tell you I don’t really want to browse a Web site on my mobile. Not in the traditional sense. Doen’t mean I’m not interested in getting with NYT has to offer in a mobile setting, only that I’d prefer a more moble specific experience. I don’t want a “site” or at least not a mini-Web site. That, to me, is limiting.

The iPhone (and next gen devices like that) should make it easier to get to a great mobile-specific experience, in many ways. And of course for people who want (or can work with) an in-browser style mobile Web experience, well, the bar is really getting low now.

I totally understand how people might not be excited about an experience that they might feel is less “rich” or something limiting but to me it’s exciting to see the ways we can bring Web content to a mobile experience. Even more exciting now that we’re getting multiple, powerful ways to do that.

Widgets on the iPhone, for example, really, really get me excited.

I think iPhone’s going to attract millions of users who otherwise feel surfing the web on their phone just isn’t worth the effort yet, as well as innovative designers who’ll no longer feel handicapped by the limitations of the technology.