Temper your 3G and iPhone expectations

"Why do we need offline capabilities when today's phones are so savvy about using the network and the network is so good."

In a PCWorld article, Bill Snyder, veteran mobile industry journo, basically admonishes us for expecting too much from mobile devices. Here are a few excerpts:

But my first few days with the iPhone [...] made me realize how far we are from the mobile, Web-based nirvana so often promised. The technology and the infrastructure are simply not there yet. It's time to lower our expectations.

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Our national infrastructure lags behind demand for high-speed services, and given the costs and the difficult economic conditions, we just have to wait until it catches up.

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Batteries have gotten much better. The problem, though, is the ever increasing demands made upon them by new features. Take my iPhone: That big, bright screen sucks power like a baby quaffs milk. Use a few other features, and suddenly you're running on empty. It's a serious problem for engineers, and it's only going to get worse.

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Battery technology, unlike CPU technology, does not dance to Moore's Law -- and it won't for some time.

There are two engineering alternatives for poor network and low battery life:

1. Hunker down and make designs for offline apps
2. Design seamless online/off-line apps
   

#1 is good old mobile app design. There is no reason to go back to that since networks are indeed better and users want to use the network more often. However, #2 is a smart evolution path while we wait for 4G.