Those small screens, and the poor navigation on cell phones have held them back as far as m-commerce goes. I am optimistic that the W3 Consortium‘s Mobile Web Initiative might change this. Its Best Practices1.0 recognizes that web experiences which are essentially desktop-based should accomodate to devices that are different.

Soon we’re going to perform most of the web transactions on our mobile devices, as Paypal’s text to buy program shows. I could buy something by sending a text message to a number placed on an ad, and by typing the product’s item code in the body of my sms. Of course, since PayPal is now a part of eBay, a financial interface for mobiles will draw other online ecommerce sites to experiment with similar services.

Sprint, Verizon, T-mobile and Alltel support Paypal’s service, while O2, Orange, T-mobile, Virgin, Vodafone and even Tesco in the UK do so.