I'm pretty sure it was 1997 that I built the first version of the D Magazine website, although the Internet Archive only shows caches back to late 1998.

At any rate, even though it was barely a decade ago, I'm probably glad that there's no evidence. To my recollection, it would be laughable by today's standards. But, it was one of the first (if not the first) city magazine sites. It was a rush to work in such an emergent medium, and a welcome break from waiting endlessly for the Mac progress bar as it dumped an issue of the magazine to a dozen Syquest discs so I could rush them to FedEx who would convey them to the film house. (They were barbaric times, but we did have fire and running water to ease the brutality.)

I get a bit of the same feeling now as our dev team slaves over our new mobile edition -- we're going to soft-launch it soon, and although it will never be "done," our intent is to have a pretty robust version up by the time the new, faster, lower-priced (for some) iPhones hit the street on July 11.

No, mobile editions aren't as much in their infancy as commercial websites were a decade ago. But anyone who thinks that the tipping point of usability and ubiquity isn't coming in the next few months just isn't paying attention.

And while the iPhone isn't the only platform to develop for, it's a force. We estimate that there are around 200,000 iPhones in the DFW area right now. And that number's going to grow substantially at a lower initial price point with better data speeds. (For the record, our mobile edition will work best on an iPhone, but should function on just about any browser-enabled phone built in the last couple years.)

I also know that I'm not the first to point out that mobile is a new medium -- and that we in the media need to avoid the mistake we made of thinking that the web was about just dumping our existing product on to a file server. Similarly, mobile is an entirely different animal. Your use case for PegNews.com is probably substantially different when you're in your car or in a bar than it is when you're sitting in front of your computer.

So, what I somewhat naively thought was a simple process of porting selected features over to the phone has sparked some of the most thoughtful conversation and feature consideration we've had since we first launched our business. How do you make a mobile edition usable and quick for everyone while covering the most apt use cases? How little typing can there be? How should we enable interaction? How do we maintain our voice while focusing on data? The questions go on and get more involved once you look at individual features.

But playing with the alpha the last couple days, it's become clear to me just how game-changing location-awareness is in our business. Where's the nearest Chinese place? Which are good? What country music shows could I go see in the next couple hours without driving a long way? I'm out at Saturday breakfast and the missus says "let's go garage saling." What, if any, news is relevant on the fly?

And for an advertiser, how'd you like to offer a virtual coupon to someone you know is within a mile of your place right now?

I've always known that mobile would be an important part of our local business model, but now that the future is here, I preminisce that it may become the core. I'll even go so far as to opine that within five years, mobile may well be our largest revenue stream.

I think (and hope) that we're the first local media outlet in the DFW area to take this so seriously. We may be even a smidge early to the party. And version 1 will almost surely bear scant resemblance to the "final." But having watched the cycles of digital media and the impact of Apple products on consumer digital habits, I believe that this wave is going to move reaaallly fast.

Note: Despite the screenshot, we do not have a publicly available version of this yet. We'll let you know when we relaunch...

Comments

Scott Doyle Verified

I had to put off reading this novel for a later date. FWIW, I was too frugal to pay $400 for what I essentially felt would be nothing more than a phone that happened to double as an overpriced MP3 player.

Now that the 3G with GPS is coming for $200 I'll definitely be getting one (not to mention all the apps their SDK will bring). Very much looking forward to the PN mobile edition.

Aside from traffic updates and nearby things-to-do, I'm not so sure this is going to take off to the extent you'd like Miko. I'd much prefer to be sitting down with a full monitor and keyboard for most of my internetin'.

But considering text msging quickly became the communication avenue of choice amongst the young'uns when it eventually was made affordable...mobile is definitely worth dedicating time and resources to.

3 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Rachel Skinner Verified

I looove this idea!
I'm one of those young'uns Scott mentioned so even if I'm right next to the computer I still like to get my iPod out and check out facebook, myspace, mail, etc. It's a bit of an addiction really.

3 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )