WAP has been undermined by service providers, claims new report
individual.com
The WAP technology is being damaged by the
mis-labelling of the service, according to
visiongain's new in-depth report. The advertising
and promotions attached to the technology have
made it appear more powerful and attractive than it
truly is, and the result is public mistrust and
dissatisfaction.
Ben Thacker, senior analyst on the Visiongain
report, argues that providers only have themselves
to blame. "WAP isn't the Internet on a phone, or
even a version of it. WAP right now is a news and
information service than happens to be stored like
Web pages. Consumers just can't relate a few
lines of black and white text to the experience they
can get at home, with animations, colour, and
sound. But providers blurred the lines, and are now
paying the price."
Some experts in the industry have compared WAP
unfavourably to the Japanese I- mode standard,
but Thacker is sceptical of these comparisons.
"WAP over GSM is WAP with one hand tied
behind its back. i-mode has packet-based billing
and always-on connections, which should arrive
for WAP by the end of this year with GPRS. When
that happens, we can start making fair
comparisons."
With 2.5G and 3G data rates on the way, and the
WAP 2.0 specification offering a service closer to
the successful i-mode, Visiongain is still confident
that WAP will be the wireless data protocol of the
future, but argues that poor handsets and the
limitations of GSM networks are currently holding it
back. "WAP needs to make the jump to
packet-based connections.
That's how consumers want their data," says
Thacker.
The visiongain report covers WAP's history and
technical details, including analysis and statistics
for projected sales and growth. Related subjects
addressed include GPRS, i-mode, possible
applications over WAP, and Bluetooth. The report
is available now from Visiongain at by e-mailing
Catherine Walker on catherine@visiongain.com,
price at GBP499 for 160+ pages. |
