© James Jordan

NewWest.Net's Jonathan Weber has a great article at Times Online that looks at the current state of the mobile web - and he's not impressed.

"I don't have any need or desire to have a full suite of applications and services at my fingertips at all times," he writes. "When I'm not at my desk, I'd just as soon not be at my desk, as it were. And finding a decent restaurant on a moment's notice in an unfamiliar neighbourhood is not actually a problem that can be solved by any technology, at least not so far."

What's more, he says, the real problem lies with basic mobile service itself. "It's incredible to me that the simple phone call has been so devalued that scratchy, intermittent reception, frequent dropped calls, and extremely low fidelity are considered normal and acceptable," he writes... and then goes on to complain about pricing issues, international service, and more.

It's a valid point, and it's one that's not being made often enough. "In all the hype about mobile platforms and the fortunes to be made therein, the industry is losing sight of the basics," Weber writes. "I hope someone eventually sees that as a business opportunity."