IP: Re: Studies blame WAP for cell phone woes

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: "Eunyoung Kim" <ekim3 () gradient cis upenn edu>
> To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Subject: Re: Studies blame WAP for cell phone woes
> Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 09:55:06 -0400
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I should've said something about WAP long time ago..
> Since I've worked at WAP industry and there have been so many myths and wrong
> concepts about it.
>
> First of all the WAP does not define any "presentation layer" protocol.
> So WAP does not have any responsibility for bad user interface.
>
> There are two components you need to have to run WAP applications on the 
> phone,
> you need a WAP browser on your phone and your service provider(such as 
> sprint and verizon) need to have gateways which
> translate and transfer different protocols and different character sets 
> depending on your phone capabilities.
>
> User interface is mostly depending on the browser on your phone, also 
> partially depends on
> the interoperation between a Brower and a gateway.
>
> So, don't blame WAP for any bad user interfaces.
> If you ever read WAP standard then you'll realize it WAP does not define it.
> (Well...I haven't check for last six months, so there are slight chance 
> that they may
> make something during that time.)
> WAP includes how to translate from HTML to WML,
> WAP includes how to improve security,
> WAP includes how to maintain persistent connection,
> WAP includes how to support interoperability.
> but WAP does not include standard for user-interface.
>
> Bad user experience is only the limitation of hardware- phone itself.
> (small display and inconvenient input device).
> However, there have been many tries of improving this limitations.
> For example, Smartphones- combination of mobile and palm-
> hasn't make success in the market.
> But, it shows how mobile phone can improve user interfaces.
> I wish I could tell you how next generation phone looks cool...but I can't.
>
> Most of phone in North America does not have more than four lines of display,
> which is definitely not enough to experience a great WAP applications.
> However, people now have a bigger screen and soon color display phone will 
> be introduced
> to North America.
>
> So, don't blame WAP.
> If you willing to use, there are tones of reason that you can enjoy the 
> convenience of WAP.
> Please do not limit your expectation of WAP.
>
> In asia, people do Java game with mobile phone, download from the WAP 
> application
> site and do game, people can download popular songs from WAP phone and 
> enjoy them.
> People shows discount coupons from WAP phone, so you don't have to cut any 
> more
> coupons from weekends newspaper.  You can also get rotary ticket from the 
> WAP applications.
> You can send an important message to your boss in meeting such as "there 
> has been something important changes
> made, don't agree on the current bid".
>
> There are tones of services that haven't been introduced to North America.
>
> And there are around 15,000 users of 2.5G service users in Korea, as you 
> can guess
> as bandwidth grows WAP can do much more than now..
>
> It is too early to judge what WAP can make changes in our daily life.
>
> Prof. Farber,
> if you have any questions about WAP..
> I'll be happy to answer your questions..
>
> Enjoy WAP,
> Regards,
> Eunyoung.



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