I came across this fascinating blog post by Barbara at Little Springs Design, talking about the different schools of thought with regard to the 'mobile web', and making the good point that switching quickly from one browser or application 'window' to another is far more inconvenient than on the desktop and that this point makes a difference to how the mobile web will pan out.

Extract from the piece:

"For “one web” can become a reality, browsers must become adept at handling multiple tasks. This, by itself, is inadequate. High-end phones (variously called “smart phones” and “PDA phones”, usually with an operating system like Symbian, Windows, or Palm) have rudimentary multi-tasking - but on an application level. Multiple browser tasks must become easy; switching between pages must become easy; split-window viewing must become possible.

Browsers must become adept at handling multiple simultaneous tasks in the same way that messaging applications are adept at handling multiple conversation threads, except that users will want the information either simultaneously or with rapid switching. The browser will have to be re-engineered, from the ground up, to truly embrace the mobile environment rather than being a miniature desktop browser.

I am not confident that all of this will become possible. I am firmly in the “Mobile Web” camp, in which mobile browsing of the future will be based on “mashups”, RSS feeds, and mobile web sites with full access behind it. Mobile Gmail, for example, allows an optimized experience while giving me the control to view all my content with a few extra steps."