Many small developers are up in arms about Vodafone reformatting mobile content.
Essentially what has happened is this:
Every browser - PC or mobile based, will show a user agent that allows content specifically formatted for that device/browser. This is particularly important with the mobile internet as there are many devices of various ages and sending the correct content is fundamental.
Vodafone, as many operators have done, essentially reformats the internet for mobile. In this case it uses a reformatting proxy from a company called Novarra.
Now in doing so it also changes the user agent - it is no longer possible for a third party website to know what content to deliver to a specific phone.
Many industry experts feel that reformatting or adapting proxies are not actually beneficial to the end user. The user experience can be poorer than the original site.
So where does this leave us? Quite simply put, many vodafone users downloading content via their phones will have problems and won't be able to recieve or play things like video, music or ringtones. There is nothing like poor user experience to put a user off - especially on mobile. Whilst the content provider will get the blame from the user (naturally) it is entirely down to the network.
The likes of vodafone need to lay off content adaptation and allow websites and content to be delivered to mobile in the way it was intended. If not, the whole mobile content industry will fall flat on it's face before it's had a chance to take off.
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