WRAP-UP: Mobile Monday with Dion Almaer (Part 2)

You’ve already read part one of this wrap-up about the Mobile Monday event that we live-blogged on Monday (or if not, click here). Dion Almaer had a lot to say at the event, and while I wish I could have put it all in one succinct article for you to skim through, that just wasn’t possible.

Dion didn’t say a whole lot about the devices and software that were coming from the new HP/Palm marriage, but he did have a lot of other things to say that can give us some insight into what could be happening next and what we can expect in the mobile web world as a whole.

Last time I wrote about what is coming at HP and Palm. In this article I’ll hit on what I believe was the more interesting half of the event – the Future of the Mobile Web.

Creating a Foundation

First off, the focus of webOS is on the cloud and modern web standards. The whole system is built with the WebKit browser, which means it doesn’t just have a WebKit based browser, it is a WebKit based operating system. Every app that you use or build is built using the standards that the WebKit browser can understand, and virtually everything that you do on a webOS device is done through a type of ‘browser window.’

Everything from your mobile PayPal site to the email application to the banner notifications that appear just above the gesture area: it’s all built to work in the web. You can see that in the webOS Playground that Dion has on his website – it’s just a restricted instance of the webOS structure that runs in any modern browser.

What this means, though, is that Palm and HP are very much into innovating the standards and languages that make up the web, not just using them. Through their support of HTML5 (which Dion joked at being the ‘savior’ of the internet) and some new technologies that are just being developed and released, they stand a chance to make some pretty big strides in the industry to change it drastically.

The web is changing and HP/Palm are at the forefront.

db8 – New Information Database with Improved Management

One technology that Palm has been actively working on for some time is a new database management structure called db8. MySQL is on a dying road: many developers are looking to other solutions for managing their databases for not just websites and knowledge bases, but also data-driven applications on devices. db8 will allow application developers to quickly access data without any superfluous coding.

The system is optimized for mobile devices so that it is very fast and very small in size. It comes with some handy features that include native JSON storage with a query mechanism, fast and simple cloud syncing, fine grained access for various applications and some more things that I don’t honestly know too much about (that’s a homework assignment).

An example of the power of this database would be a future version of Preware (according to Rod Whitby) that will have instant feed loading and background updating/syncing with the feed server at webOS Internals. Let me tell you, instant feed loading in Preware would be a more than slightly welcome sight.

Accessing Native Device Features from a Website

Right now there are a ton of devices out there that can access the web and have an application system available – and not just smartphones or similar devices. Today you can go to any local tech shop and find printers, TVs, phones and even picture frames that connect to the internet in some way. If you are a company that wants to push your name out onto these devices to support the customers that use them, how much time and money are you really willing to spend to develop apps for 86 different devices?

Probably not much. You’ll pick a few big names (iPhone and Android) and build for them, then leave the rest alone. It’s tough for a company like Palm to break through the mind-share barrier when there are already other companies that are dominating the market. What do you do, then? You redefine the market.

Taking a look at webOS again, you can see a deeper purpose for the OS than just creating a neat user experience that people really enjoy. Palm wants to put more emphasis on the web and on the cloud, because if there are more web apps that work across all WebKit based devices and browsers, they don’t have to win the ‘App Race’ anymore. They just have to have a better UI than the competition (which the already have) and sell a few more devices (which they’re working on).

Dion spent the better half of his presentation discussing this idea of building applications that work on a regular web server in any modern web browser (on any device – laptop, slate or smartphone) that can also access the data stored on that device natively. Developers don’t need to build native apps for a dozen different smartphones anymore, they just need to build a mobile friendly website that uses new technologies and languages to access various data points on any device the user is currently on.

You can already see some of this in action with SproutCore.com and Appcelerator. Palm and HP are supporting these types of innovations to bring a whole new idea of development into the game. If it works, then not only will webOS win the match, but we all win with more advancements in the industry (better devices, more optimized code, etc.)

And The Next Step Is….

There’s still more. There’s always more. With HP and Palm putting their resources and talent together and working more with third-parties on a ton of different projects, we will start seeing some really cool things coming into action in very short order. Heck, Phil McKinney brought the flexible screens from out of nowhere and there is no doubt that other devices and technologies have been in the works for some time.

Whatever it is that is coming, we are very excited about the possibilities for webOS and the mobile web as a whole. We all know that Palm and HP are just companies and will one day just be a memory. But, while they’re still around, we’ll support the innovations that they pioneer – cause that’s what is going to create the companies that put them out of business tomorrow (for better or for worse).

Here’s to the future.