re: WAP
A few weeks back we discussed the possible short product life cycle of WAP. Here's an interesting article on the topic:
Not Wedded to WAP
By Lydia Lee
(The Industry Standard)
In mid-July, at Phone.com's third annual Unwired Universe conference, CEO Alain Rossmann rattled off some impressive numbers: 4.1 million people worldwide subscribe to wireless Internet services based on Phone.com software, and 12 million phones use its browser. Another 150 new models are under development, and some 110,000 developers are working on applications.
Not bad for a company that started six years ago developing software for wireless carriers. In 1997, Phone.com joined with industry titans Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson to create the Wireless Application Protocol, a standard for connecting wireless phones to the Internet. In some ways, that effort has succeeded: Many of the early entrants in the wire-free world have agreed on WAP - in theory.
But that theory has proved difficult to bring to life. In the weeks before the conference, increasing reports of unhappy users and frustrated developers hit the press, as people in Europe and the U.S. gave WAP a whirl for the first time.
The problems are surprisingly low tech: Handsets have been in short supply, and WAP gateways, which connect mobile surfers to the Web, frequently crash. When users are able to connect, they're exasperated at having to navigate tiny text links on minuscule screens and pay big bills for sluggish, per-minute connections. Developers, meanwhile, are annoyed that their Web sites, redesigned using WAP's markup language, appear differently on different handsets.
Even worse: Some carriers restrict Web access to sites that have signed business deals with them.
Phone.com has surfed the WAP-hype crest, selling gateways to wireless carriers and licensing its WAP browser to major handset manufacturers such as Mitsubishi, Panasonic and Sony. Phone.com, which made $68.7 million in revenue last year, went public in June 1999 and saw its stock slip past $200 a share early this year. Since the spring market shakeup and WAP's increasingly bad rap, shares have slid into the high $70 range.
As founder of Phone.com, Rossmann led the way in convincing wireless carriers, handset manufacturers and Web developers that customers wanted Internet access from their cell phones and that WAP was the way to provide it. Now he's faced with a tricky balancing act: continue to promote WAP's virtues while insisting that his company is not WAP-dependent.
A native of France, Rossmann holds two master's degrees from French universities and an MBA from Stanford University. At 44, he combines Gallic flair with American entrepreneurial energy. He speaks rapid-fire English (with a French accent, not surprisingly), and smiles easily, seeming unfazed by the current bad publicity.
In the early 1980s, Rossmann managed the third-party developer group at Apple Computer. After stints at Radius (a videocard and monitor manufacturer) and C-Cube Microsystems (semiconductors), Rossmann became CEO of EO Corp. of Mountain View, Calif., which developed an early personal-digital-assistant product that never took off. "It was a premature effort," he says ruefully.
But in Web phones, Rossmann is convinced he's found a technology that people crave right now. His own WAP phone has become indispensable, he says. "It's turning out to be an extraordinary tool for me. I have 900 employees, and I check my employee directory all the time and dial them directly," he says excitedly. "I now know arrival times and gates of planes faster than the [airline] agents to whom I talk - I never call them anymore."
Ask about customer dissatisfaction and slow adoption rates and he's quick to defend the numbers. "We're hearing just the reverse from our customers. They're all reporting very high usage numbers. Take any data that you have, and the adoption rates have been incredible for such a young market."
Nevertheless, Rossmann - who last year predicted WAP would become as ubiquitous as DOS, the original language of personal computers - now says the fate of his company is not bound to the fortunes of WAP. Phone.com, he says, will adapt to whatever standard emerges. "Our job is to build what the customer demands. The market wants WAP for the next two or three years."
That's a far cry from the solution WAP once promised. And it hints at a quandary for companies that move toward WAP, if it's destined to be only an interim technology. [See "The Backlash Begins", August 14.]
But Rossmann's new tune may reflect reality. Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service, for instance, has become wildly popular among Japanese teenagers, and is considered the benchmark for wireless innovation. In contrast to WAP's fragmented development, NTT worked with manufacturers to design a custom handset, upgraded its cellular network to handle data and developed custom content. I-mode has rapidly built a base of 9.7 million users.
Rossmann argues that WAP has the advantage of being a universal standard, as opposed to i-mode's proprietary technology. "People used to tell me, 'Windows will never succeed because you can not control the PC, there are all kinds of PCs,'" he says. "Diversity is a cost and a benefit. If you have total control over every feature, you have short-term advantages. But the market is huge; you can't control the world."
Should i-mode or another standard overtake WAP in Europe and the U.S., Rossmann says, Phone.com's software could be easily converted.
Whichever standard wins out, it must solve the same problem as WAP: translating Web sites for wireless devices. Because the wireless network is not completely compatible with the Internet, WAP converts Internet protocol into something that can function over low-bandwidth wireless channels. With this software in place, the carriers are equipped to provide additional services such as e-mail, along with streamlined Web access. Even if WAP proves to be a stepping-stone to another protocol, the software foundation will have been laid.
Rossmann points out that the wireless carriers tend to move slowly, and they need to learn how to market better. "NTT did incredibly brilliant marketing. It got a phenomenon going for the young generation. I-mode became the brand you had to have - you couldn't go to high school without it."
Meanwhile, Scott Goldman, president of the WAP Forum industry consortium, asserts that it's too early to write off WAP. "There's a lack of awareness for what WAP can do," he says. "It's the difference between buffet and room services. On the PC, you see it all in front of you, you can put whatever you want on your plate. On a phone, you have a menu, you order what you want, and it's delivered to you."
Even if supporters like Goldman are right, and concerns about WAP don't slow the spread of the wireless Internet, another question still looms: Will U.S. consumers latch on to wireless services like customers in Japan and Europe have? Rossmann says it comes down to enhancing people's ability to communicate. Even less wieldy messaging services have caught on in Europe, he points out. And WAP offers other promising applications: instant messaging and location-based services that provide listings of, say, restaurants in a customer's area.
Even though WAP is an easy target right now, it has provided a starting platform for competition. "Factories are producing phones, and phone manufacturers have a lot of inertia. They are going to flood the market," says Rossmann.
As for the users? Well, in France they say on verra. We shall see |
