Wednesday, August 1, 2001

Wireless Users Want High Real-Time Value Applications

The key challenges for WAP in the region include the lack of software to support local languages, lack of a user-friendly interface, slow access speeds, lack of useful content, high call rates and time-based billing methods, according to IDC Asia/Pacific. Although the introduction of WAP services came at a time when the cellular market was enjoying explosive growth in terms of subscriber base, it saw limited success and has been the subject of much frustration and disappointment among users.

The future of WAP will very much depend on the availability and variety of access devices, applications and infrastructure networks. The emergence of Internet-enabled access devices such as PDAs with wireless data/voice connections, mobile phones supporting WAP and NTT imode phones will drive the demand for wireless Internet/data services.

Speech technology, as it improves, will also become a very natural and powerful interface for these devices. VoiceXML, a web-based markup language for representing human computer dialogs will also create new opportunities in the marketplace. Although WAP was designed keeping in mind the low bandwidth available in the existing wireless network, the availability of GPRS and 2.5G technologies and thus packet switched data networks will drastically speed up the deployment of WAP services.

"Mobile voice development levels do not correspond with that of mobile data and text communications. WAP was designed with low available bandwidths in mind. WAP access requires a specific connection via the ISP the same way as the PC does, and is expected to come into its own with the introduction of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) services," said Gary Hong, Product Manager at IDC Asia/Pacific.

Mobile commerce is another application that will open up new opportunities for WAP, as transactional applications are believed to be one of the key drivers in this marketplace. Other technologies that will increase the usage of wireless Internet/data applications, such as Bluetooth, will also help to boost demand for WAP.

Among the Asian countries, Korea has the largest base of WAP service subscribers as it is the only market in the region enjoying access speeds of 64Kbps. Although markets such as Hong Kong and Taiwan enjoy high mobile penetration, overall WAP penetration in Asia remains low. With the availability of GPRS infrastructure and handsets, the take-up rate of WAP is expected to increase drastically. In fact, the region has begun to see increasing demand for wireless data services as operators launch SMS-based services. Increasingly, vendors are offering a growing number of tools for developing mobile Internet/data applications, as well as off-the-shelf solutions to extend standard business applications. Applications are growing too, whether in pricing information, messaging, helpdesk automation or calendar management. Access speeds are also going up, resulting in the availability of a wide variety of applications.

"Asia/Pacific will to continue to account for an increasing proportion of wireless applications, in view of its current wireless communications infrastructure implementations and service deployments. Where 3G is concerned, the region remains conservative in the light of the European experience and the prospects of 2.5G service deployments in the medium term." added Mr Hong.