"If we're talking about the global mobile marketplace, we still have to deal with a mix of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and ad hoc browsers," Weinberg said.

IBM's software lets Web masters edit the flow of content created with AJAX, Javascript or XMLHttpRequest (XHR). By making the process simple, the company hopes to make it accessible to Web developers of all skill levels, according to IBM spokesman Ari Fishkind.

By addressing AJAX and Javascript, IBM should be able to reach most Web developers today, Linuxpundit's Weinberg said. But the tool might appeal most to small and medium-sized businesses and small mobile development houses, he said. Enterprises with large amounts of material to present tend to use content management systems on the back end that can reformat the content for mobile delivery. There are also other specialized tools on the market that can adapt traditional Web pages automatically based on a set of parameters. However, IBM's technology would probably give more hands-on control, he said.

Presenting an entire Web page audibly still presents the problem of making users listen to a lot of content they didn't need to hear, though there are some techniques used for visually impaired people that give the gist of a passage and let them skip over it, Weinberg said. Still, there may be no way around some hands-on editing to optimize content for new settings.

"Even if you format the content correctly, it's usually best if you actually change the content a bit," said analyst Michael Cote of Redmonk.