Besides these features there are other compelling reasons for mobile cloud computing. We know it is a stated fact from Google that they are betting on the mobile web. Example of that here. Read Write Web also recently had a good summary of a research paper made by ABI Research on this subject. The authors even dare to saymobile cloud computing will soon be a disruptive force. This is based on a factor that you know your humble blogger supports, the mass market for mobile is not in the smartphone segment. There are 4bn mobile subscriptions in the world. Smartphones have a very small market share of that. So for the masses there is huge potential in a browser based service in the cloud where processing power and data storage is handed over to the server side. The mobile phone takes the role of a thin client. Most most phones today can fill the shoes of that role.

Another interesting point made in the report is that there are far more web developers who are capable of churning out great services than there are experts in mobile apps. With browserbased services, access is also better. You just need a mobile internet connection, not a specific carrier reltionship to reach the specific app store for a specific smartphone. With HTML5 around the corner the prerequisites for mobile cloud computing becoming a distuptive force are improving as well with the caching features covering for glitches in the network service quality.

The coming 24 months will be interesting times for mobile cloud computing. Will we see companies like Netbiscuits compete with Amazon Web Services in this area soon? Will Nokia, a company that looks sadly lost today, regain its stronghold through leadership in mobile cloud computing? Was it all just hype?

Time will tell. I am looking forward to the ride!