Building Blocks for Nokia

There are many layers to any discussion about building sophisticated mobile applications, but all roads usually lead to the primitiveness of WAP, the cost of data access, and the variability of Java as actually deployed. (I heard yesterday that the cost of porting a J2ME application to various Java implementations was greater than the cost of developing the application in the first place…)

The trick is to reach enough handsets to make an ad-supported model work at reasonable development cost and with a decent application. So Nokia’s acquisition of Twango (social networking) and Enpocket (mobile advertising) are interesting. Integration of basic social networking features into the handset – particularly given Nokia’s market share – would be a great target environment. And the ad platform is critical.

We’ll be spending a lot of time writing about social networks path to mobility, so stay tuned…