Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Another view WAP Backlash
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 09:43:30 -0400
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 09:08:32 -0400 From: "Alan A. Reiter" <reiter () wirelessinternet com> Hi Dave, I've been to Europe four times this year and have used WAP phones and spoken and chaired wireless Internet conferences overseas. It's not WAP per se that's the problem, it's the implementation. Criticizing WAP is like criticizing HTML when you're viewing the Web on a five-inch black-and-white monitor with a 300 bps connection and using a telephone keypad rather than a keyboard. Of course the experience is going to be awful! WAP is just a tool. It's a way to code pages and send data over the air in an efficient manner. People don't like the idea of having to re-code sites. Until software is smart enough to automatically transform HTML or XML into formats appropriate for various wireless devices, WAP is a good alternative. There's not much else out there. (Compact HTML, used in Japan for i-mode, also requires re-coding of data.) The problems today for WAP are: circuit switched connections are slow -- perhaps 15 seconds to connect -- and sometimes unreliable; connections are sometimes dropped; some WAP sites aren't coded correctly, which results in not being able to connect or poor performance; there aren't enough useful, transactional sites; WAP phones aren't sufficiently easy to use despite huge amounts of time and money from the handset manufacturers. In addition, WAP is being marketed as wireless Internet -- just as Sprint PCS in the U.S. is marketing Phone.com HDML (**not** WAP) as the "Wireless Web." Comparing today's WAP and HDML services to the Web is like comparing a meal of, say, a black olive in a salad to a dinner buffet! Beware of misleading customers with advertising and marketing! The situation will will get better. Programmers will learn to code WAP. Phones will become more ergonomic. New devices, such as PDAs, will have more wireless capabilities. Transactional services -- banking and shopping, for example -- will be ported to WAP from SMS. Packet data -- GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) -- will be implemented this year and offer better performance, always-on functionality and packet pricing. Third Generation with faster speeds (but **not** the theoretical maximum speeds always printed in the press) will start in Japan in mid-2001 and in Europe in 2002. That will not, however, eliminate the need for efficient code for wireless networks! Wireless will cost you -- in time and money -- and efficient code and navigation of applications will remain crucial, despite 3G. WAP certainly isn't perfect, and the experience of using WAP today is poor. But it will get better. Wireless data is a tough business because so many things -- wireless networks, devices, applications, distribution, etc. -- to provide the right combination of price, performance and user expectations. At least there IS action! Alan ==== Alan A. Reiter, President Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing **consulting, tutorials, conferences, publications** E-Mail: reiter () wirelessinternet com Phone: 301-951-0385 Fax: 630-982-1994 http://www.wirelessinternet.com Dave Farber wrote:From: Bosley_J <Bosley_J () bls gov> To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu> Hi Dave: I don't know how many IP'ers sub to Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, but ifany areinterested in usability issues, it's a great service! He can be onedilly ofa curmudgeon, but you gotta listen to him! John Bosley -----Original Message----- From: alertbox () nngroup com [mailto:alertbox () nngroup com] Sent: Sunday, July 9, 2000 10:37 PM To: Alertbox Announcement List Subject: Alertbox: WAP Backlash The Alertbox for July 9 is now online at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000709.html Experience with WAP in Europe shows that it is hard to use. Because of the miserable usability of the small phones, services must be re-designed for each handset, increasing maintenance costs.--
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- IP: Another view WAP Backlash Dave Farber (Jul 26)