Ebay and Volantis...

I notice that Ebay (UK) has outsourced production and maintenance of their mobile site (Ebay Anywhere) to Volantis. Clearly, Volantis has the expertise and tools to run a mobile site, whereas Ebay presumably doesn't.

What does that tell us about mobile site production? And what does it tell us about Berners-Lee's comments that site designers aren't doing enough to make their sites mobile-accessible? Well, if you need the expertise and vastly elaborate middleware of Volantis to make it all happen, then...well, it's not likely to happen is it?

We have the standards in place for a common language, but little, or no, standards (or tools/infrastructure) for delivery. I still argue that someone should be looking at how to host a decent multi-device delivery service that is accessible to all. I actually think that operators should be doing this, but they probably aren't in a hurry to do so because in reality they aren't so sure about unfettered access to 3rd party sites. Moreover, it may not have occurred to them.

Perhaps then, there's a market opportunity here. After all, if mobile Web traffic can be driven through such a service, then there's a revenue-making opportunity.

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