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Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Party like it's 1999... (or thereabouts)
Justin Pearse writes at The Feature (whole article in link above):
That the once-derided protocol is on the ascendant is of course down to the maturity of both handsets and networks, with high-spec colour phones and fast GPRS networks leading to a, finally, compelling user experience. The numbers speak for themselves. The Mobile Data Association recorded 13.3 billion WAP page impressions in the UK last year up to November. In the words of Bango's vice president of alliances and marketing Anil Malhotra, "consumers are surfing and spending."
Sometimes it feels like 2000 all over again. Back then, Web agencies were all launching mobile divisions to concentrate on WAP sites, only to shortly shut them down once the clouds of WAP hype cleared. Now it's all starting to happen again, only this time the audience is there to support it.
It's been a long road, but WAP is finally living up to its initial hype.
It's hard to avoid WAP these days. From media companies and retailers to Web agencies and mobile services companies, WAP site development is a hot topic. Many in the industry believe 2005 is the year WAP content will really take off in the UK, offering the next opportunity after the premium SMS gold rush. Although the operator portals will continue to play a significant role in WAP usage, the off-portal mobile Internet is also an increasingly fertile breeding ground.That the once-derided protocol is on the ascendant is of course down to the maturity of both handsets and networks, with high-spec colour phones and fast GPRS networks leading to a, finally, compelling user experience. The numbers speak for themselves. The Mobile Data Association recorded 13.3 billion WAP page impressions in the UK last year up to November. In the words of Bango's vice president of alliances and marketing Anil Malhotra, "consumers are surfing and spending."
Sometimes it feels like 2000 all over again. Back then, Web agencies were all launching mobile divisions to concentrate on WAP sites, only to shortly shut them down once the clouds of WAP hype cleared. Now it's all starting to happen again, only this time the audience is there to support it.