In this article, Andreeson (Netscape fame) comments on why browser-based devices have been a failure and cites Jobs as understanding what types of devices may succeed:
"IDG: What is the future of the browser? It would seem that the browser as we know it is too clunky for many new computing devices. Can you foresee what might take its place?
Andreessen: The browser metaphor does not work on this (pointing to his cell phone) or this (his BlackBerry pager from Research in Motion Ltd.). You know what WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) stands for; it's the sound a WAP cell phone makes when you throw it in the wastebasket. It was a disaster, and it was because the browser metaphor didn't work on the cell phone. There are going to have to be new metaphors invented, new clients, new user interface models, but they've got to be suited to the device.
This is what (Apple Computer Inc. chief executive officer) Steve Jobs understands that a lot of people have trouble with: Form factor really counts. What shape it is, how far away from it you are when you use it, how big the screen is, whether it has a keyboard, whether it uses a stylus, those things determine how it gets used more than anything else, and you can't force the wrong metaphor on people.
That also means that convergence won't happen. It also means that convergence is exactly incorrect in almost all cases. Divergence is the future because these things are actually all different form factors."
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0206/14.browser.php
"IDG: What is the future of the browser? It would seem that the browser as we know it is too clunky for many new computing devices. Can you foresee what might take its place?
Andreessen: The browser metaphor does not work on this (pointing to his cell phone) or this (his BlackBerry pager from Research in Motion Ltd.). You know what WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) stands for; it's the sound a WAP cell phone makes when you throw it in the wastebasket. It was a disaster, and it was because the browser metaphor didn't work on the cell phone. There are going to have to be new metaphors invented, new clients, new user interface models, but they've got to be suited to the device.
This is what (Apple Computer Inc. chief executive officer) Steve Jobs understands that a lot of people have trouble with: Form factor really counts. What shape it is, how far away from it you are when you use it, how big the screen is, whether it has a keyboard, whether it uses a stylus, those things determine how it gets used more than anything else, and you can't force the wrong metaphor on people.
That also means that convergence won't happen. It also means that convergence is exactly incorrect in almost all cases. Divergence is the future because these things are actually all different form factors."
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0206/14.browser.php