Ready Right Here Right Now, with Google
"who wants to use the internet on a phone?" - Are you KIDDING??
'occassional email' and 'where's my garage' would be two great examples of exactly why people WILL and DO use the net on a phone.
And emails won't be occassional. I use mobile gmail from Google which is awesome - and I use it at least 30 times EVERY day, for work and private communication; and not just when I'm travelling; when I'm at meetings, and when I'm at home on the sofa and can't be bothered to get to my PC (who want's to be sat at a PC at 11pm at night?). And it translates Word documents to text on the fly, and lets me download powerpoint and excel files and images (assuming you have offline capability on your 'phone' e.g. some kind of smartphone).
And google local search as well as its main search works just fine, and the 'new' [it's not new atall, just not widely known about] google mobile gateway which sucessfully translates 90% of websites into a text-only, navigation and images removed version is again, ready right now.
So its not a hardware/connectivity issue - its just a question, as with 'search engines' (remember someone somewhere once said "why would anyone want to search the internet? I just like to browse my favourite sites") of when Google mobile services become widely know - the demand, usability and technology is NOT a problem, even the advertising models, it's just that the current telco's AND handset companies are still trying to push their own walled garden approches.
On this same page right here there's an article about Google entering into the mobile OS market - once that's done the mobile internet will become a reality, but as I said the demand and technology is already there; its just a question of market reach and awareness - a totally different issue. Once the telco's realise it they will partner with Google, as will the handset manufacturers. A phone without Google will soon be like a PC without Google - you might as well throw it in the bin. And the new iphone? Well iphone with Google services is a great tool for the masses: the iphone without Google services is just a fancy handset that could come from anyone who can be bothered to develop a fancy UI - it's again not that big a deal {but it will ship with Google services of course ;-).