Yes, I know we’ve technically been able to access the web from a mobile phone for years, but honestly — how many of you did it (or do it) regularly? Me neither.

I’m not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg — Google and Apple launching their respective mobile platforms, or the technology itself finally being ready to render the web the way we enjoy it on our computers — but what I do know is that the moment has arrived. As I write these lines, the real mobile web revolution is beginning, and it’s not going to wait for us. It’s now or never.

Apple, for example, has brilliantly capitalised on the hype generated around its new toys. Within a matter of months, hundreds of web applications developed specifically for them are available, and an unofficial SDK has even emerged, through which quite a few apps are already running natively on the phone, free from the constraints of a browser.

Google, for its part — which doesn’t have quite as cool a gadget — has launched Android Developer Challenge, a contest with $10 million in prizes for the best applications built on its platform. The initiative will obviously succeed — money talks — though I’m not entirely sure that trying to foster creativity by stimulating ambition is the right approach (that’s just my personal take).

Let me elaborate. If Google wants Android to succeed, what it should do is turn it into an icon — build a community of passionate followers and developers around it, just like what happened with Firefox, GNU/Linux, the Wii… Something that wouldn’t be too difficult, since although it’s not a brand that inspires passion the way Apple does, it does enjoy the goodwill and trust of most corners of the internet.

What is clear is that 2008 is shaping up to be a very interesting year for the web, and the fact that Google and Apple are — in one way or another — leading this small revolution… I don’t know, it leaves me feeling a little more at ease.