NEW YORK-Andrew Seybold offered attendees of a recent New York New Media Association meeting this twice-told tale to illustrate how mobile data badly needs an application of common sense, that least common of all the senses.
The respected wireless Web guru and curmudgeon offered this scenario, retelling an account he said a Lucent Technologies Inc. employee provided at another public forum:
The man was driving with his family on the New York State Thruway. A good way from home, his wife realized they had forgotten to bring their young child’s favorite toy. To find the nearest Toys R Us, she logged onto their Web-enabled mobile phone, only to be asked the zip code of their desired location, which they did not know.
They decided to get off at the next exit and ask the toll taker for information. The Lucent employee asked the Thruway worker for the zip code, whereupon his wife socked him in the arm and said, “Just ask how to get to the nearest Toys R Us!”
Seybold said his invitation to lead a New Media Association panel discussion on “Internet Unplugged: The World Wide Web Goes Wireless” was predicated on a misguided concern. It is true that Japan and Europe are way ahead of the United States with respect to wireless Internet access, but that does not matter because it is totally different from the wireless Web.
“iMode is the first and only Internet access Japanese users have ever seen. The killer apps are different because Japanese people want train schedules, they don’t write checks and ATMs close at night … Some people will try to get iMode into the Northern Hemisphere, but I’m not sure it will be successful,” he said.
“In Europe, WAP stands for `Where are the phones?’ and `What? Another Protocol?’ WAP is not accepted well. It is deployed but not well. The first thing you reach for in a PC is a browser, and that’s the last thing you reach for in a wireless phone.”
He offered this example. In order to get updated flight status reports on a WAP-enabled mobile handset today, the end user must input various kinds of information, punctuated by clicks to navigate to as many as 11 different screens. Behavioral studies have demonstrated that an ascending order of magnitude of users give up their search after each extra navigational click required to locate information, he added.
“If I already have entered the flight information into my calendar, I should be able to click on a single icon and get automatic information. I will have never used a browser, but I will get every piece of information I need. That’s what we need to get the wireless Web to work,9 Seybold said.
“I run my life wirelessly, but today voice is easier than data. We have to fix this.”
About one in 10 people who own an Internet-capable mobile device use it for that purpose, according to research by TicketmasterOnline-CitySearch Inc., said Paul LaFontaine, vice president of the company’s wireless and mobile strategy.
“It’s a slower adoption rate than expected, although one carrier told me that 98 percent of wireless traffic will be data. I asked `when?’ He said `soon,’ ” LaFontaine added.
Inadequate network coverage is a key contributor to the slow adoption of wireless data in this country, said Mark Caron, a founder of Omnipoint Communications, now owned by VoiceStream Wireless. Caron is now president and chief executive officer of MobileSpring, a wireless Internet incubator.
“Although it’s a bit self-serving an answer, Omnipoint, as a start-up, took a long time to build out its network. But it’s somewhat inexplicable for the original two licensees, which have been at it for 15 years,” he said.
“It’s a huge problem, although all carriers now are going at it aggressively. But there was delay going digital, controversy over TDMA vs. CDMA, it’s a big country and, until recently, there were 400 licensees in cellular alone. Unfortunately, we are about 12-18 months away from the coverage needed.”
Insufficient in-building coverage is a severe inhibitor to wireless data, especially considering that 48 percent of wireless Web customers use the service indoors, Seybold said.
“There’s a reason why all the people in the Sprint PCS wireless Web ads are always shown outdoors,” he added.
“Right now, the mobile Internet is good for consultants and newsletter writers. Are there normal people who want this?”
Aaron Dobrinsky, president, CEO and founder of GoAmerica, said his company is experiencing continuing “corporate wins” for use in areas like sales-force automation, dispatch and health-care records retrieval.
“We are moving from pure vertical to corporate horizontal and will go from there to a blending of business and personal, as in calling home, then checking inventory,” he said.
The “oozing” of business usage into personal use, as happened with personal computers, is the most likely route for successful and widespread wireless data adoption, Seybold concurred.
Alternatively, the converse strategy taken by Palm Inc. seems tailor-made to promote wider wireless data use. Palm successfully introduced its handheld computing devices as personal items and let customers discover their utility for business use, he said.
