Rumors of the mobile web’s death are greatly exaggerated.

The latest brouhaha stems from a quote from Russell Beattie reposted on Read/Write Web, excerpted below:

“I don’t actually believe in the ‘Mobile Web’ anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at best, and dying at worst. I’m talking specifically about sites that are geared 100% towards mobile phones and have little to no PC web presence. Two years ago I was convinced that the mobile web would continue to evolve in the West to mimic what was happening in countries like Japan and Korea, but it hasn’t happened, and now I’m sure it isn’t going to.”

The author of the R/WW post went on to say he misread the quote after he analyzed it on the blog, and on one hand he did, yet on the other hand, Beattie is clearly painting mobile with a broad brush. The comments thread then focuses heavily on the impact of the iPhone, and that this represents the mobile web going forward.

I don’t see it that way. There are a few points to understand here:

1. The iPhone’s important, but that and its clones aren’t the be-all end-all. For instance, pity this poor Mets fan here. When I go to Mets.com, it’s all flash, video, and imagery, and way too many components to navigate on a small screen. Yet when I go there from my Windows 5 mobile browser, I get the latest score and other info. Even if I’m on an iPhone, I’ll want the WAP site.
2. AdMob reported in recent ad serving metrics that iPhone surfers triggered about 2% of ad impressions on its network in the US (worldwide they serve over 2 billion ads a month), while the top three Motorola phones accounted for more than 25% of impressions combined.
3. Meanwhile, it is ridiculous to think that there will be a new mobile web totally separate from the web as we now know it. Big brands like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, NYTimes, MySpace, and the like will have a following on whatever device people use. People don’t say, “I’m surfing the mobile web now.” They’re just going to their favorite sites.
4. There are sites that are really capitalizing on it. Weather.com’s mobile site gets over 5MM uniques monthly, while toward the end of (American) football’s regular season ESPN’s mobile NFL section traffic surpassed traffic to its main site.