Wap: it's here but hold-Sunday Times
After months of hype, delayed launches and much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the mobile internet era is upon us.
With BTCellnet and Vodafone both launching their full wireless application protocol (Wap) services last week, and the first Wap phones available in the shops, the industry that analysts say will overtake the PC market in just a few years is up and running.
Wap is the system that allows compatible mobile phones to connect to the internet. However, because of the limitations of the phones - small screens, no colour display, no mouse or full-sized keyboard - Wap phones are restricted to viewing pages specially written in WML, a stripped-down version of the web's language, HTML.
So far, there are few Wap sites around, so the mobile phone operators are providing their own directories of Wap services - and although both BTCellnet and Vodafone allow you to connect to any Wapsite on the internet, it is quite tricky to do so.
So we've taken a look at just what is available on each of the operator's sites. Vodafone's services launched last Friday with the promise of a Wap directory, special content partners and mobile e-mail. It has signed deals with WHSmith Online for users to buy books and CDs. Affinity Internet is providing games and Psion and Paragon Software have provided software to synchronise calendars and address books between your PC, hand-held gadgets and your mobile.
There's also news supplied by a broadsheet newspaper and the BBC, with financial news provided by Warburg Dillon Read. Vodafone also has air and travel schedules from OAG, and weather updates from the Met Office.
Users can also access some of the new Wap portal sites that also launched this week: Excite Mobile - which features the same personalisation as Excite.co.uk - and Yahoo! are both available with other Wap-only portals.
As far as Vodafone is concerned, its Wap launch is the start of the Next Big Thing.
"This is the beginning of a major shift in internet access from the fixed PC to the mobile phone in our customers' pockets. With the advent of m-commerce [mobile commerce] later this year customers will have a shopping centre at their fingertips," said Paul Donovan, Vodafone's commercial and marketing director. Vodafone's only real competitor at the moment is BTCellnet. Its Wap services launched last Monday with an initial 36 content providers. Some of these - Excite and the BBC - for example, are also on the Vodafone service.
However, with both services able to connect to the open internet, there is little to choose between them, and no real need to change your mobile phone operator for better Wap facilities.
It's undoubtedly early days for the Wap services - their design and navigation are still pretty poor, although this is more because of the limitations of the phone than anything else.
Will anyone want to use it? Well, perhaps. I've been using the BTCellnet system and the Vodafone system, and so far I'm vaguely impressed. Wap is nowhere near as fast as a regular internet connection, even if it is only small amounts of text. To anyone used to surfing the web on a high speed connection, the navigation is frustratingly slow.
It is, however, addictive, and I can see my phone bill rapidly increasing. The web is timewasting enough, and the ability to surf while waiting for a bus is too tempting. But I am, it has to be said, a bit geeky about gadgets.
The big change to Wap services, however, will come in the summer. Then BTCellnet is planning to launch its GPRS system. That allows Wap connections to run at 128K - twice as fast as an ordinary modem - and will allow the phone to be permanently connected to the net. Because of this, I wouldn't recommend anyone to buy a Wap phone right now if they don't really want one. Wait a few months and the new GPRS phones will be out and those will be worth waiting for. |
