Onavo - Too little, too late?

Today an app caught my eye. That app was Onavo.

Onavo is a data compression app and its developers claim that by using it you can
(i) double or triple your data plan, and
(ii) save up to 80% on your data bill. 

So far, so good.  The mobile internet is booming and in some countries (such as India) it could grow to be far more popular than the conventional internet, since it is much cheaper to buy a phone handset than to buy a fully blown computer.

But...

At the moment there are other forces at work in the mobile internet space.  The EU is currently looking to significantly reduce roaming charges when users move between EU countries, and it is not inconceivable that other countries will follow suit.  This removes one of the app's key selling points: reducing the cost of data abroad.

In addition, the rise of smart phones means that mobile users are also starting to use a lot more data.  Since they won't want to spend all of their disposable income on using their phone the way it was intended, either mobile contracts with free inclusive data will become a lot more common or data on a PAYG basis will become a lot cheaper.  So you won't even need to use this app at home either.

Despite all this I can still see Onavo becoming a winner.  And not for any of the reasons it claims.  I think Onavo might be able to solve an issue with mobile internet that isn't going to go away any time soon: speed. 

Using the internet on my mobile is a bit like going back 10 years to the days of dial up internet.  The days when you had to be very careful when browsing because one wrong click and you could be stuck for hours waiting for a page to load. 

If Onavo's compression means that I can access web pages faster (as there is less data travelling around) then this could be a real winner.  And I sincerely hope it is!