The failure of mobile phones using the Wireless Application
Protocol (Wap) to access the Internet is well-established, as are
the reasons for Wap's lack of success
In part, Wap was a victim of the dotcom hype machine that tended to
over-inflate the value of any technology if it had even the vaguest
connection to the Internet. More seriously, Wap provided a solution
to the wrong problem: accessing today's Internet from mobile phones
is not a particularly sensible thing to attempt.
The success of the Japanese i-Mode system does not contradict this,
since there the particular local conditions have tended to outweigh
the inherent disadvantages of today's screen sizes etc.
It may well be that Wap was wrong not so much because it tried to
bring the Internet to mobile phones, but because it sought to
shoehorn the entire Web into these devices. The problem here is
twofold: graphical elements form such an important component of
online browsing, that losing them robs Web pages of much of their
power. Similarly, the crucial hypertext links are reduced to
deeply-nested menus, which tends to nullify their ease of
use.
But there is another hugely successful Internet application that
avoids both of these issues, and which seems perfect for mobile
phones: instant messaging. A very simple form of wireless instant
messaging already exists in SMS, but some companies are now
suggesting that a messaging platform as rich as the main Internet
instant messaging services might turn out to be the right way of
marrying mobile phones and the Internet.
Glyn Moody
Glyn_moody@cix.co.uk