My firefox browser seems to be regularly dishing up a page that says “thanks for updating..” or some such blurb. It reminds me that my mobile never does this. In fact, my mobile is stuck with its browser as it is. The only exception is my Blackberry, which I have updated now and again. I only know to do this - and how to do it - because I’m what people might call a “tech-head” or some such nickname that infers higher than average technical competence. I managed to find the link to Blackberry updates via an obscure page on Vodafone’s website that I think is designed not to be found. In fact, if I bookmark it, it almost certainly moves - seems like a quantum look-and-it-changed thingy, otherwise known as crap service to the rest of us.

Updating mobile software can be done. There is the painful route, which usually involves some obscure tool on the PC that has a poorly written set of instructions translated from bad technical language to incredibly bad technical language. It almost always comes with the obligatory warning not to power off the device, breath on it or otherwise sweat on the keyboard in case of complete and irrecoverable damage to the device. That is usually enough to deter even hardened eggheads like myself from undertaking the nerve-wracking procedure. My semi-rational mind usually asks the impolite question “Why can’t this tool/device reset itself back to a known state if it all goes wrong?”

Updating over-the-air ought to be possible, although the “don’t power off” warning worries me about the whole enterprise. Remotely updating equipment in the field is an old idea: without it, mobile base stations would be ultra-expensive to maintain. Sending field engineers to update and fix bugs can’t be “off-shored” so easily. Why we haven’t quite got around to it yet is one of those mysteries not worth thinking about, like how do the wings of an airplane manage to bend so much without falling off? Actually, there are all kinds of issues that make the whole sea of mobile devices out there quite unlike the PC environment with its near uniformity and general excess of resources (i.e. memory, disk space, etc.) However, a general lack of commercial interest in updating devices is probably the most plausible explanation.

The question is just how integral is the browser update to the whole web experience? If it is, as I expect, very integral, then the current Mobile Web 2.0 band-wagon, as in “Mobile Web 2.0 is Web 2.0 on the mobile” seems somewhat flawed to me, at least for the time-being, except on some devices. I’m guessing that everytime we plug in an iPhone, it will do all that updating stuff over the USB cable. That’s one solution. Of course, is Mobile 2.0 really Web 2.0 “on the go”?