An older post (Feb 2001) but a good look at some of the basic technology points...
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To clear up some confusion
by: wereinabearmarket 02/01/01 12:19 am
Msg: 170675 of 311184
There has been and still is a great deal of misconception among many about what WAP and i-mode really mean. First, too many in Wallstreet for too long have felt and still feel that WAP equals bringing the internet to wireless devices in a form that is redesigned for small screens. Like being able to experience a portal like experience as you are right now on your computer, but instead on a mobile device. That is all wrong and not what is happening here. What is being developed and
where InfoSpace is gaining worldwide traction as the leader, is building the infrastructure for wireless/mobile devices, that in a sense, make those devices our ultimate remote controls for everything in our lives. They will become a necessecity for every aspect of our lives as the world speeds up and technologies advance.
And while aspects of the internet will be a part of this, it's not about transferring the internet to small screens on mobile devices. This kind of complete convergance I feel is unlikey for some time, and is where WAP runs into problems. For example, if any of you are familiar with the XSL technology or XSLT, you know what I'm talking about. XSL is a W3C standard. It's purpose is to let you transform
an XML file into another XML file. The concept is that as long as you choose XML as the format for your content, you can deploy XSLT to deliver XHTML content to web clients and WML content to WAP devices, but there is a problem with this because you become stuck in a small space with applications becoming increasingly difficult to manage, and you are in essence back to a text based solution. Only a very small percentage of existing web content makes sense in WAP. So you see, WAP is not the web! Nor do I feel it will for a long long time, if ever. As for i-mode, that can't really even be compared to WAP because i-mode relies on site reauthoring with a subset of HTML also known as cHTML. And these are just two examples of what became extremely important to the core components of InfoSpace from day one of it's wireless initiative five years ago - to develop technologies and platforms that conform to any and all technologies, whether it be WAP, i-mode, PDA (HTML), 3G, or even HDML (which is currently being phased out.) It doesn't matter to us! InfoSpace is not about necessarily making the web wireless, but creating the ultimate remote control for our everday lives through our mobile and wireless devices, and this will include e-mail (currently one of the most popular usages among mobile users in Europe,) instant messaging, location based on demand services, transaction services, back end business solutions for merchants and connecting with end users... and the list goes on. In addition, there will be aspects of the internet which will programmed into this, but this will ideally be done from home to make it convenient for you while you're mobile. This is where InfoSpace's deep involvement and leadership role in iTV will also play a major factor going forward.
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And this post
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Programming wireless from computer .2
by: wereinabearmarket 02/01/01 12:21 am
Msg: 170676 of 311184
For example, if you're on the road, and you want to watch bloomberg on your new enhances mobile screen, you can do wo with all your personal items already programmed in which you can interact with, like seeing your own stock quotes, news related items, and being able to trade directly from whatever mobile device you are using, and if you read carefully the partnership with Vertigo you will get a clue of
the number of exciting and innovative ways this will evolve. As for our leadership role, the strategy becomes much deeper and complex as to why major companies like Nortel, Lucent, Intel, Cingular, AT&T, Compaq, American Express etc. are incorporating InfoSpace's platform and technologies into their own, and how that will relate to other major carriers and leaders around the world continuing to deepen and expand their relationship with InfoSpace. This connects to the reason why Nortel and Intel for example are developing and engineering specific technologies with us. To understand the implications of this you will have to do the research and connect the dots on your own. But any major corporation not using our infrastructure will prove to have not been very smart over time. Not just because of the fact we have over 2 million merchants but because of the massive world wide revenue streams that will come to these companies which do use InfoSpace's platform because of the broad and deeply layered InfoSpace subscribers, members and customers. So it becomes like powerful building blocks for these carriers and corporations each and every day. Believe me, companies like Nortel and Intel are not stupid!
All of this is happenign now and continuing to expand in growth beyond initial expectations (Look at the number of InfoSpace members reported last quarter - 1.5 million and that is just the very beginning.) This is just the foundation getting started and InfoSpace is positioning itself to be the global leader for now and the years ahead. In five years most devices will most likely work off of XHTML or a successor and since PDA's and mobiles will by then possibly merge, WAP may or may not exist, nor might C-HTML and HTML. But whatever technology at that time is dominante, it will run on the application layer on top of a standard operating system. For InfoSpace and to its potential billion plus members by then, what will be most important is the ease of use of their mobile devices and how it ties into every aspect of their livves they want or need it to. As someone mentioned, it won't matter to them whether it's WAP, i-mode, WML, HDML, C-HTML, XHTML or whatever! InfoSpace has built its entire technology around that realization and the strategy and business model to sustain being the #1 global leader runs much deeper and this vision has been in place and continues to come to frution, since day one.
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One thing I want to point out is that this poster only used two minutes inbetween both posts to generate this much information.
So: Either he/she is a very fast and knowledgable typist
Or: This remarks were produced ahead of time and posted to that other board. |
