The Obligatory Retrospective.

I mean, it's sort of a requirement, right? A year goes by, you do a retrospective. Thing is, I haven't been at this covering-the-mobile-content-game game nearly long enough to look back on a year's worth of posts, so any retrospective I could do would only make this li'l project look like a third-grade book report next to the almighty Moconews. More than usual, I mean.

If you're looking for a more general look back at mobile in '06, Jo Best has ya covered. If you want a more personal retrospective, read on.

This time last year, I was more involved in mobile content, and a lot less cynical about it. Having studied digital comics obsessively for years, I was convinced that I knew the future of comics, and it was handheld. I wrote that comics on the iPod were not just a cool idea, but a necessity, at least for those who cared about the comics business and wanted it to survive.

I said "iPod" when I really meant "mobile device," because it seemed obvious that the iPod was shaping up to handle all forms of mobile entertainment (that iPhone was going to come along before '06 was out). At Clickwheel, the digital-comics company that had inspired my zeal, we were clear that the iPod was merely a first point of entry-- easier than mobile phones with their vast array of incompatible formats, and possibly a "back door" into the mobile market if the iPhone came along at the right time, but ultimately a way station in our journey toward ubiquity. Toward all handhelds.

Yes, I was... a... a... (sob) MOBILE HYPESTER.

Clickwheel was, and still is, a good idea, but ideas are measured by the enthusiasm they attract, and while I was at Clickwheel, our audience was far more interested in the individual strips we featured-- most of which had already made their names on the Internet-- than in the idea of comics on an iPod.

In aggregate, this still gave us a healthy download growth curve. But it was hard on our egos. It was like being the costume designer at a high school play-- of course the actors are going to get most of the praise, but you know, it would be nice if one or two parents mentioned the outfits...

I think that this is a problem not just for Clickwheel, but for the entire mobile industry. Mobile developers are focused on the box, mobile users are focused on the contents. And developers keep wondering and wondering why mobile users don't get excited about the box. It's not the user's job to get excited about the box. They don't merely think outside the box, they don't think of the box.

To them, THERE IS NO BOX.

But, of course, if you're reading this, there's a good chance you DO care about the box. Which is fine. Care. Take pride. Celebrate the box. As long as you always always always remember that your customers don't. And it is your job to help them get the things they DO care about-- then recede into invisibility.

I have another version of this essay for comics letterers. You can probably guess how it goes.