WAP Still Kicking, Seriously !

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=3229' target='_blank'>http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=3229</a><br /><br /></div><i>"According to the Mobile Data Association, June 2004 has seen a considerable increase of 42% in its recorded number of WAP pages viewed compared with the same period in 2003. This takes the total for the second quarter of 2004 to 4 billion."</i><br /><br />I find this very surprising. Who is viewing 4 billion WAP pages each quarter, and what are they looking at? I gave up on WAP many moons ago, and I don't know anyone that is still using it. Perhaps, I'm just out of the loop, off in the corner all by myself. So here's an idea. If you are a WAP user, share your links with us. Post them in this thread because, I would like to see what I'm missing. :D

[freitasm]

Remember that all current portal services, like O2 Active, T-Mobiles Zone, Vodafone live! are based on WAP. Even MSN Mobile has a WAP version.

Also, most feature phones can only download ringtones and images from WAP sites. This feature works like this: you send a SMS to a premium number, and receive back a link to a WAP page. And you imagine how many users download ringtones and images, right :wink: ?

[Mike Temporale]

most feature phones can only download ringtones and images from WAP sites. This feature works like this: you send a SMS to a premium number, and receive back a link to a WAP page. And you imagine how many users download ringtones and images, right :wink: ?

Ah! Now that makes sense. I can see how those numbers are rising if they are counting Ringtones and images. I still think 4 billion is a little high. :wink: Or maybe I should start selling crappy ringtones for a buck! :lol:

[freitasm]

Yep. Vodafone alone has got 130 million customers. A few million in UK, plus O2, T-Mobile... And have you used Vodafone live!?

It's awful, like all WAP applications. To find a map you have to go through 10 pages. No wonder they've served that many pages :wink:

[TANKERx]

If all a person wants is information that can be represented with text or basic graphics, then WAP is good enough. If what you want to do is show off your latest toy, then WAP is probably not for you.

Pointing at bad WAP pages to prove that WML is rubbish is like pointing at bad Web pages and saying "Ha! See? Look at that yellow text on a red background! Proof that HTML is rubbish!"

[Kris Kumar]

Recently when I was in the T-Mobile store to buy a phone for my friend, I noticed that on the home screen of almost all the phones, the left soft key was mapped to the T-Mobile WAP T-Zones. The first month of T-Zones is free. And after that I believe ring tones and wallpapers can be accessed.

I am sure the system is being followed by other carriers as well. I know AT&T has its mMode.

So there are a lot of phones out there that make the WAP sites easily accessible. In fact accidentally accessible. My friend being new to the concept of T-Zones and since the left soft key is mapped to it on the home screen, she would always end up going into T-Zones.