So finally WAP is going mainstream. I still feel that operator's have been a major factor holding back the growth in WAP-usage by making it so difficult and expensive to use. And even now that users are figuring it out for themselves, operators still are more of a roadblock than an enabler of business.
"There is, of course, a fly in the ointment. As so often happens with mobile, it's down to billing. Billing on off-portal WAP sites is today still occurring via reverse billed SMS. This is because the WAP billing systems that make purchasing content on the operator portals so easy -- enabling content to be charged to your bill with one click -- are still not available as a third-party offering."
Nice post Yme.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenIndeed, wireless operators will
1) support off-WAP-portal sites with new billing systems like their internally developed initiative (T-Mobile, Vodafone, Orange, Telefonica). So the issue raised is only temporary.
2) open up their walled garden approach analog to the situation on the fixed Internet in 1995-1997...compare closed systems like AOL, Prodigy and MSN Network with the success of the open Internet. This is in the interests of operators, third party sites and mobile end users.
Yuri