Perhaps no surviving mobile technology has suffered the pummeling WAP has endured since its over-hyped introduction in 1999. But after six years of being tied to the whipping post, it seems the technology has finally regained legitimate attention with the mobile-marketing community first in line.
While BREW, Java and other platforms each bring unique advantages to various wireless applications, its ubiquity and Internet-like user experience make WAP the technology of choice for many wireless advertisers-at least for now.
“Right now, the WAP environment offers an advertiser the best reach, the best frequency, interactivity, tracking and reporting,” said Thomas J. Burgess of Third Screen Media, which develops mobile-marketing technologies. “Advertisers are always going to desire that reach and frequency and interaction, and they simply won’t get that in the current environment of Java or another type” of platform.
What’s more, said Burgess, is the targeted marketing that WAP allows results in more “click-throughs” by consumers seeking details about an advertised product or service. And WAP sites usually can be changed or updated as quickly and easily as regular Internet sites, allowing brands to keep marketing efforts fresh.
Carriers hoping to boost non-voice revenues are playing a leading role in boosting marketing efforts via WAP. While they’re still careful not to bombard users with advertisements, they’re beginning to loosen restrictions on content providers and others looking to put marketing messages on users’ phones.
Mobile Phone Applications Inc. (MoPhAp), a Connecticut-based mobile-marketing company, has developed technology that places ads between WAP pages, presenting messages during latency times as users move from one page to another. “The carriers are finally realizing there are significant revenues that can be gained by this avenue,” said Robert J. Walczak Jr., chief executive officer of MoPhAp. “They’re starting to push it more; making subscribers aware of it more.”
Off-portal sites also are working to expand WAP usage, encouraging users to move beyond carrier decks to access information and buy ringtones, images and other content. To compete with the third-party content, operators are scrambling to keep potential advertising revenues on their own decks and away from third-party sites.
Media and marketing companies are finding WAP allows them to take advantage of both business models.
“It’s really kind of a lowest-common-denominator strategy,” said Alex Panelli, CEO of Trilibis Mobile, which provides software enabling content providers to bring their wares to market more quickly. “BREW and J2ME are better user experiences, but WAP is a little better (than the initial version). Carriers have told us they’d like titles committed to the WAP deck.”
Interestingly, while the industry steps up its efforts to boost WAP, consumers still seem hesitant to embrace the technology. The latest monthly research from mobile usage measurement firm M:Metrics indicates a 2-percent drop in the number of U.S. consumers who use their phones’ Web browsers to retrieve news and information. Only 12 percent of wireless users access the Internet from their handsets, according to the report.
While the recent decrease in WAP usage may be anecdotal-or may be a sign of more WAPlash-it also may be indicative of how content and service providers are beginning to pick the right platform to deliver their wares, according to Brian Dally, vice president of product management for Motricity, which delivers content for Cingular Wireless L.L.C., Verizon Wireless and others.
“At one level, the statistics show a drop off in WAP usage, but if you look deeper, you see the types of things people are doing” are well suited to other platforms, explained Dally. “If people are using WAP a little bit less for gaming or to chat than (platforms such as) J2ME, there are reasons that support that.”
Some content providers contend that while WAP may provide a decent wireless browsing experience, it is inferior for many types of content delivery. U-Turn, a mobile-media company founded four years ago in Prague, Czech Republic, uses its own technology platform to deliver video, images and other content.
The company is working to deliver video content from local TV stations and other content providers to wireless subscribers. But when it tried to enter the U.S. market, it quickly WAP enabled its offerings.
“We found that coming into the U.S. we had to have a WAP solution,” said Izzy Abbass, U-Turn’s president for North America. “The reason for that is that we work across multiple carriers, so our clients have to have the greatest reach in phones.”
Given the various strengths and weaknesses of the “competing” platforms, the real opportunity lies in integrating technologies, according to Dally. Users should be able to browse, download, and do nearly everything else they can do from a PC in a mobile environment that exploits the advantages of each technology. And they should be able to do it seamlessly.
“Integration among those silos is key. … The challenge has to be able to make those technology silos irrelevant to the end users,” said Dally. “People are taking a hard look at multimodal applications, and the WAP technology suite is going to play a critical role in that. I have no doubt about that.”
