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| Subject: | Re: MobileLBSList: Article slamming wireless web |
| Date: |
10/30/2000 08:40:03 AM |
| From: |
Sandeep Hundal |
|
Lol! I mean to personal attack My Gilmore, just my opinion that there are
too many articles going around slamming WAP, with nothing new to offer in
terms of solutions or ideas.
In terms of promotion of WAP and surrounding technologies, I dont think its
all that surprising that it was pushed out without being the most
revolutionary of experiences.
The internet became big around 1994 - 95. Telcos realised that the net was
basically a big network that connected up PCs. Why shouldnt the same apply
to mobiles? And therefore WAP was conceptualised. Only problem being that
they didn't focus enough on the consumer experience, in typical european way
of doing things.
Anyway, so when the time has come for the technology to take off (i.e. WAP
phones are launched), I think the networks were in a bad position. They knew
that WAP wasn't all that. The adverts grossly exaggerated what was
achieveable. But if they didn't do it, advertising by competing networks
could mean that they get first mover advantage.
To take an example for the UK, BT cellnet fired the first shot with its
massive 'surf the bt cellnet' campaign. Orange and One2One have been doing
minimal advertising as well for WAP, but not on the same scale. Then
Vodafine realised it needed a strategy fast to not lose the subscriber base
to bt cellnet, and launched vizzavi.co.uk - a portal which actually offers
nothing special from anyone's perspective, apart from a brand name that
Vodafone can give its wap strategy, and an accompanying massive ad budget.
As competition heats up with TIW launching its dolphin network, and 121 and
orange possibly spending more money to promote that they're not without
their own 'revolutionary' WAP access, I think all the networks know they are
spending money to promote a crap technology which will be nothing great
until GPRS takes hold, but can't do much about it because their competitors
are promoting the same thing, and they can't afford to lose people who try
out wap/mobile phones for the first time.
I hope all that made sense..... :)
Thats what I think anyway, and that, again IMHO, is the reason for your beef
Mr Gilmore.
/sandeep
sandeep@wde.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "wj gilmore" <wjgilmore@hotmail.com>
To: <mobilelbslist@wirelessdevnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2000 1:13 AM
Subject: Re: MobileLBSList: Article slamming wireless web
> Hi everyone,
>
> I've been a passive member of this list for quite some time, but couldn't
> help but reply to this posting, since I'm the author of the article. :)
>
> Yes, I'm in agreement with Mr. Hundal that in fact this is a subject that
> has been repeatedly hammered on in publications, but I feel that it is a
> by-product of the incredible hype generated by a technology that has since
> largely been deflated due to its inherent shortcomings.
>
> Unquestionably, the wireless data communications will become a part of
both
> everyday personal and organizational activities in the future: I think we
> can all agree upon this. However, it is of my personal opinion that WAP,
> although on the surface an interesting technology, has surfaced in large
> part due to the telcos. feeling that getting anything out of the starting
> gate is better than nothing. While this isn't necessarily a problem, I
find
> it difficult to swallow the continued promises that it will change the way
> we communicate.
>
> However, given the harried pace upon which development of wireless
> technologies continue, it will only be a matter of time before these
> shortcomings are supplanted by a modification to current transmission
> pricing structures (i.e. from time to content charging), a hybrid of
> cellphone and pda, and higher transmission speeds. Again, this is
something
> that we can all agree upon. In fact, the Ericsson R380
> (http://www.ericsson.com/R380/) goes a long way towards eliminating the
> human interface problem, in a very interesting implementation of a
pen-based
> PDA and cellphone.
>
> My main beef lies in the continued hype generated by a technology that, as
> telecommunications analyst Paul Budde so eloquently put it, is crap
> (http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/25/ns-16330.html).
>
> But hey, what do I know? I have to muddle through my menial existence with
> half a brain... At least I'm doing it fashionably.
>
> By the way, I love the list, and love WirelessDevNet. Keep up the great
> work.
>
> Sincerely,
> William J. Gilmore
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >From: "Sandeep Hundal" <sandeep@wde.org>
> >To: <mobilelbslist@wirelessdevnet.com>
> >Subject: Re: MobileLBSList: Article slamming wireless web
> >Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2000 01:21:56 +0100
> >
> >I think that's the 50 |
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