WAP has found itself in a similar situation to mighty Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system. A lot of people complain about it, but nearly everyone uses it.
WAP came along at a time when the wireless Internet industry was beginning to take off and needed a simple way to allow access to information, similar to Microsoft’s position within the home computing market. If you access the Internet from a wireless device now, chances are good you are a WAP user.
A fair share of industry insiders will state that while WAP had a place in the development of wireless Internet access, the protocol’s time is over.
“WAP gives designers little control over developing applications, but there is much more innovation with other languages,” said David Young, chief technologist at Lutris Technologies, an open source software company. “Developers have more control over the real estate with other applications. The emotional attachment to WAP is too limited.”
When WAP was first introduced in early 1998, the protocol filled a huge void that had formed due to the increasing demand for wireless access to the Internet. The protocol, developed by the WAP Forum, set specifications for wireless data communications over handheld devices.
Basically, WAP provided an industry standard for converting typical Internet pages to the smaller screens of wireless devices by using WML instead of the HTML used for traditional wired Internet access. WAP also worked well within the power, spectrum and mobility limitations of wireless data networks.
The WAP Forum estimates there are 10,000 WAP sites from 95 countries, with more than 7.8 million WAP-readable pages available to more than 50 million WAP-enabled handsets around the world.
“Widespread WAP acceptance is a reality,” said Scott Goldman, chief executive officer of the WAP Forum.
But, with such wide acceptance, why is the wireless industry quickly looking for a replacement for WAP?
Most WAP opponents agree that WAP does not support the kind of innovation wireless Internet access needs to grow. Other complaints include slow access times, security lapses and cluttered code entry.
“We have tested people using WAP devices, and in some instances, it takes up to 45 minutes for them to find a stock quote,” said Sam Adler, manager of developer marketing for Europe and Asia at Openwave Systems Inc. “That is why WAP has not succeeded.”
The WAP Forum is attempting to fix perceived problems with the protocol with an updated version. WAP 2.0 will include support for xHTML, with backward compatibility to WML; support for color graphics and animation; the ability to download large files and streaming media; data synchronization with desktop PIM; and location-smart services. The specs for WAP 2.0 were released last month, with final comments due by the end of May.
Even if WAP 2.0 does fix the current problems, some feel by the time 2.0 is released, WAP’s hold on the industry will have vanished.
“It’s too little, too late,” Young said. “They will fix some of the security holes and they are turning to xHTML, but I think other technologies are going to clean up.”
