Mobilize Kicks Off; Mobile Web Already Well Under Way

Om Malik kicked off today’s Mobilize event with a few data points and a nostalgic look at the day when a colleague stepped into his office with a Palm 5, the first smartphone. Even though it wasn’t that long ago, the pace of innovation since that day has been much faster than on the PC.

More importantly, the connectivity of the mobile device has grown at a much faster rate. U.S. mobile data revenues will be $50 billion this year, he points out. In the next few years, we’re going to be able to reach mobile download speeds of 10 mb per second for about $50. Smartphones, led by the iPhone, will be the killer apps that fuel this.

“Just like Napster was the thing that made people adopt broadband on the PC,” said Malik. “The iPhone will make people want to get onto the mobile Web.”