Convergence for the Internet Underpriviledged?

I have talked about frictionless reputation on 2.Open.aol.com. In this context friction is the source of discouragement that leads to a viewer not engaging with a site. An example of friction might be a complicated sign up process. The comments that were triggered by the post sparked some tangential thoughts. To sum up the issues that surfaced:

• Page load time is a source of friction
• Don't forget about dialup users

Dial-up users may be a shrinking audience but a sizeable proportion of them probably belong to a larger under-priviledged group of Internet users with older machines and small screen resolutions. If you follow that argument this diminishing group shares something in common with a fast exploding portion of the web population: Mobile users. Mobile users may not have older equipment but they typically have constrained screen sizes and slower connections. This raises the question are we seeing the potential for some convergence here? Should we be developing streamlined web apps for the mobile user that could be incorporated in to a small screen browser, may be even within the AIM client?

What do you, our development community, think? Is there an opportunity to create streamlined web apps that can make the Web more interactive and accessible to both dialup and mobile users? The launch of the iPhone with it's "real" web browser may further drive this issue. Even though zooming is easy - simple, quick loading web pages are much easier to navigate, particularly if being accessed over the cellular data network. I am seeing reports of Yahoo! pages taking two minutes to load over the cellular link. That's enough friction to discourage anyone!

Share your ideas. Join the discussion. Post a comment below.