Features
Above the Fray
Follow the Money
Market Research
Big Ideas
Technoptions
Developer Insights
Q & A
Opinions

Archives
Calendar of Events
ASP Directory
Other Cahners Pubs

Submit a Release
Meet our Staff
Contact Us
Advertise
Magazine Subscription

Food for thought, always a great notion

New studies assess WAP’s future over general packet radio service networks, demand for mobile multimedia and Java 2 Micro Edition.

May/June 2001

Higher data speeds afforded by GPRS networks will not save WAP, according to the Shosteck Group. First, the research firm suggests subscribers wishing to take advantage of GPRS networks will need to replace their handsets. Secondly, though handsets and networks will carry upgrades, WAP gateways will not - thus latency issues still will dampen the experience. Should new versions of WAP show improvements, familiar issues remain: limited content and awkward user interfaces impede the value proposition.

The Shosteck Group’s study, "WAP: The Value Chain Doesn’t Stand Still," isn’t intended as a WAP-killer. Rather, it purports to give WAP proponents the heads-up they need to profit from their technology. The future viability of WAP lies in software and hardware companies that build proprietary and open extensions on top of the protocol to bring added functionality to WAP browsers.

Jupiter Media Metrix weighs in on J2ME and suggests that J2ME will be a worthwhile platform - a notch above alternatives - for highly interactive applications that can run offline.

Supported graphics will show a marked improvement over ASCII versions on most handsets and will improve yet again as more processing power and memory are integrated into the handset.

The new Java software for handhelds will not replace markup languages such as WML or cHTML, Jupiter projects.

Java’s abilities will shine on packet networks, which will - surprise! - empower carriers to decide how J2ME is used and distributed, as OTA provisioning gets routed through the carrier’s data infrastructure.

Perhaps by now you’ve heard of the International Data Corp. study on mobile multimedia commissioned by Lucent, Qualcomm and Microsoft. Apparently people want m-multimedia and they want it now. IDC surveyed 1,000 mobile enterprise users, other early adopters and consumers. The most popular application is all about productivity: e-mail with large attachments. But the second app in demand is accessing visual and audio content. It’s well known that Microsoft is developing a Windows Media Player for its wireless platform, just as Qualcomm, with a hand from PacketVideo, plans to have streaming media functionality embedded in next-gen chipsets - thus their interest.

There’s always good news from Washington, D.C. This just in: The feds won’t move anytime soon to ban wireless handsets in cars - or telematics displays, for that matter - while they ponder the more frequent distractions such as fumbling with compact discs, sloppy hamburgers and screaming children.

- The Editors