Attachmate is attempting to boost WAP fortunes among business users
as the wireless technology struggles to live up to expectations in
the consumer market.
The legacy specialist has struck a deal with Nokia to connect WAP
phones to mainframe databases to constantly update business users
with customer information.
Nokia Internet Communications global and strategic accounts
manager, Keith Yaxley, admitted WAP applications were limited and
it would not be hyping up its potential in the way it had done in
the consumer market.
“People were expecting a PlayStation and got a ping-pong table,”
Yaxley commented on the hype surrounding WAP compared to the
reality. Since the launch of technology at the beginning of the
year, vendors have been promising a brave new world of mobile
Internet access but have only managed to download limited content
services to phones.
WAP has also been dogged by a lack of phone sets because of
shortages in the chip market. Attachmate business development
manager, Jon Newlyn, said its WAPFrame service was a move away from
the traditional PC terminal emulation business and it would appoint
additional resellers as a consequence.
“WAP has been misunderstood in the consumer market and I don’t
think it is ready,” Newlyn said, claiming the product would fit
better in the corporate space. Easy IP will remain a distributor
for the product but has struck a deal with Vodaphone’s corporate
reseller arm and mobile wireless reseller Fast Forward to promote
the products.
Newlyn conceded it was a pioneering market and resellers would
have to be imaginative to identify target markets for the business
sector, although niche sectors had already been found. He pointed
to mobile workers previously using laptops with remote connections
to download daily customer information who were now in a position
to replace it with a single WAP phone which was able to update data
as it was required.