HTML used to semantically describe what information looks like.

Actually, HTML was never supposed to do that. Designers just effed up HTML to make it do what they wanted to do—mostly because the CSS support in browsers was shite.

But back to your main topic… it’s all going to be a question of “Where are the user agents?”. Yes, Microformats would be PERFECT on a phone or other device. But there’s the question of how to get the agents on the phone.

Open platforms should allow you to do this… if only the agents existed. From what I know, the best mobile browser available today is the OperaMini browser. But can that do anything with microformats? I don’t believe so. Somebody could write a plugin to do this (does Opera allow plugins?) or maybe a mobile Firefox is the answer.

Then there’s iPhone. Super. They’re going to have Safari. But we probably can’t install any plug-ins. Bookmarklets aren’t as efficient. This leaves it up to Apple to implement Microformat features. I love Apple, but I’m a bit doubtful that they will do that. I’m sure they’ll try to introduce their own super smart phone number and address identification system. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help us with hCal.

It’s all about usability. Microformats can be a real boon. I just hope SOMEONE allows us to take advantage of this on mobile devices.