This article is from www.independent.co.uk. It seems that the realization that gsm/wap is not so great is slowly dawning across the pond.
WAP? I'd rather have my hand-held
If last week's PC Expo in New York has it
right, Europe has it wrong.
By Steve Homer
3 July 2000
The West Coast of America is seen as the powerhouse of the
internet. But in a very real way, New York is the proving ground.
If you can make it here you can make it anywhere.
In sweltering downtown Manhattan, despatch riders compete
for pavement space to deliver goods to your door from
UrbanFetch.com and Cozmo.com. The TV and subway are
saturated with ads for all manner of internet ventures and New
York's "Silicon Alley" is an internet hot-house.
Last week, the internet temperature rose still higher in New
York as the country's second largest computer show opened
its doors to 80,000 visitors. And the bad news is that PC Expo,
now in its 18th year, should terrify many European companies.
In fact, the PC was almost missing from the show.
Despite the legal problems that are plaguing MP3 sites such
as Napster, new devices for playing MP3 music files were a
hot item at PC Expo, with Diamond unveiling it's sleek new
player, the Rio 600.
But the real star of the show was mobile internet, a sector that
Europe keeps telling itself it is a leader in. And what is more,
the mobile applications available make all the European talk
about the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) revolution
leading the world look like so much rubbish.
The IBM stand was dominated by a notice that said: "Soon one
billion mobile internet devices will be pointed your way." Where
Europe might have got things wrong is that these mobile
devices really do not look like being phones with browsers
built in, but hand-held devices (also known as personal digital
assistants) beefed up with internet connections.
The talk of the show was Palm. The company had a stand
packed with weird and wonderful devices from third-party
developers. These ranged from hardware gizmos such as a
Kodak clip-on camera, to wonderful software such as free city
guides from Vindigo.
But Palm is not having everything its own way. It is challenged
on two fronts – from Handspring and from a Microsoft-backed
effort. Handspring was set up in 1998 by Palm's two creators.
The company has had real success with its Visor, a Palm
lookalike which uses the Palm operating system. Handspring
has incorporated some extra technology tweaks in its basic
$149 model and has undercut the Palm price of $249. Palm is
not too worried, however. It makes a good return from the
licence fee for the operating system on each Visor sold.
In the US all these devices are now seen as on-the-move
connectivity devices. Microsoft and Handspring rely on plug-in
modules that connect in a variety of ways. Palm though, has
really cornered the market, with add-on devices for the Palm III
and V and the killer connectivity device – the Palm VII. This ugly
but hugely popular device connects to e-mail and internet-type
services using a US radio data system.
So far these products have made little impact in the UK, but
that may be set to change. Palm announced at the show that it
will introduce a software upgrade for the Palm III and V so that
they can use their infra-red capability to communicate with
GSM phones. The software will be available in the Autumn and
it's slated to cost $50 although Palm is considering offering it
for free. This will allow Palm to deploy its huge range of
third-party mobile software.
At the show, the vision of a separate phone and hand-held
data communications device as the way forward seems
almost unassailable, at least for the next year or two. In case it
isn't, all the manufacturers are preparing to launch add-ons
that will turn their devices into telephones. If that was not
worrying enough, the Palm Internet Connection Kit will
incorporate a WAP browser.
After PC Expo, if I were a European mobile phone
manufacturer relying on making a killing in the WAP market, I
would be very nervous indeed. |
