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A Web phone is still a phone

PC World

May 30, 2000
Web posted at: 2:36 p.m. EDT (1836 GMT)


In this story:

A moving market

Stay connected

Pushing into corporate data

Rethinking the phone's role

Still waiting for WAP

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



(IDG) -- After all the promises, finally Web-enabled phones are becoming truly useful. Get local information -- wherever "local" happens to be. Shop. Trade stocks. Get voice mail, e-mail, and faxes. But be warned: The airwaves are not the wide-open Internet. You can't do all this everywhere. And existing services can't do it all.

  MESSAGE BOARD

Carriers control the wireless Web that hits your two-inch telephone display, and they're still hammering out the network (and billing) issues. Just as you pay for wireless voice service, you may pay extra for wireless data service and Internet access from your Web-enabled phone.

Also, having a Web-enabled phone doesn't mean you can surf to any Web site. Typically, you get a tiny menu that offers one-click access to selected sites -- mainly those that pay top dollar for the best positions offered by the service carrier. These content providers create versions of their sites suited to a Web phone's small screen.

A moving market

At least the carriers have plenty of incentive to promote the wireless Web, because they see many potential customers. Some 600 million mobile phones will be in use by 2001, say IDC market researchers. Many of those phones will be able to access Web content.

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At the WirelessAgenda 2000 conference here this week, wireless data experts, carriers, and technology companies touted many upcoming applications for the wireless Web. Some of these are available for pagers and handheld personal digital assistants as well as Web-enabled phones and phones that follow the Wireless Application Protocol, or WAP, specification.

The mobility of these devices is key to some of the most promising applications. Programs tailored to the needs of travelers, offering location-specific information, are drawing interest. In fact, location-specific services are likely to promote wireless devices among business travelers, says Barney Dewey, a partner at the Andrew Seybold Group.

Information such as movie and restaurant listings, driving directions, and directory information draw on your phone's Global Positioning System function. Your phone tells the network where you are, so you receive only the information appropriate to that location.

Yahoo Everywhere and other wireless portals already offer such listings. Mapquest provides driving directions by Web phone, and Vicinity searches out nearby stores. For air travel, Travelocity and Expedia alert you to flight delays as you rush to the airport.

Stay connected

Wireless portals also provide communications services and custom information. MSN Mobile, Yahoo Everywhere, Excite Mobile, and AOL Anywhere work with the portal that appears on your PC. Through MSN Mobile, you can access Hotmail, your MSN calendar, your address book, and your Expedia account. Yahoo offers instant messaging and alert services.

Combining the Web and mobile devices gives unified messaging new appeal. OfficeDomain, OneBox, and other services aggregate your e-mail, voice mail, and faxes at one site accessible from a PC or wireless phone.

Shop on the go

E-commerce, or "m-commerce," as it's being called in the mobile world, is rapidly rolling out on Web phones.

Interactive mobile services are suited to both impulse- and comparison-shopping, says Scott Goldman, chief executive officer of the WAP Forum.

For example, you could carry your Web phone into a stereo store, and then surf to IQOrder.com, and enter the UPC number of a tuner that catches your eye. The service may send you to Web stores that charge less for the same product, arming you with comparative pricing ammunition.

Can you browse a bookstore by Web phone? Sure. Amazon offers one-click shopping on its wireless Web site, and lists recommended titles for easy picking. BarnesandNoble.com is also accessible by Web phone, most easily through its prime placement in the AT&T PocketNet shopping channel.

Pushing into corporate data

Mobile business users are clamoring to be able get through firewalls to Reach corporate e-mail and data via mobile phone, and the tools are appearing.

For $40 per month, the BlackBerry system from Research In Motion offers unlimited access to Microsoft Exchange on its paging devices. Research In Motion also plans to support Lotus Notes.

InfoWave is developing an interface to Exchange for the upcoming Compaq iPaq Pocket PC, targeted at mobile professionals. But you'll need an add-on modem PC Card developed by Sierra Wireless, which brings the cost close to $1000 for the device, not including services.

Rethinking the phone's role

The price of admission to the wireless Web is still being determined. Mobile phone carriers already charge by the minute for voice service, dangling a variety of usage packages before prospective subscribers. With data rates dragging along under 20 kilobits per second, they'll have a harder time convincing you to pay for data by the minute.

Sprint PCS offers access to the wireless Web free for six months with the purchase of a voice package. But after the introductory period, Sprint charges about $10 monthly for access, like many of its competitors.

AT&T's PocketNet service comes free with purchase of a voice plan. But if you want to surf to sites other than the 40 that are listed in AT&T's wireless Web menu, you have to pay a monthly fee that starts at $6.99 for e-mail access and runs $14.99 for a mobile personal information manager and access to any URL.

AT&T Wireless doesn't charge for access because it uses CDPD, a 19.2-kbps packet data network that's always on, says Kendra VanderMulen, AT&T senior vice president for product development and strategy.

The service lets you sample the wireless Internet for free, notes Andy Seybold of Andrew Seybold Group. But CDPD isn't available in all AT&T Wireless markets, so you can't surf wirelessly on AT&T from anywhere. "[At least] you'll get voice coverage in some places where you don't get data," Seybold says.

Still waiting for WAP

"WAP" is a term used casually to describe Web-enabled handsets, but completely WAP-compliant phones are not really available yet. The first true WAP phones are expected to appear this year. They will be rudimentary but will pave the way for more sophisticated mobile surfing.

The WAP Forum, which oversees the technical specification, promises WAP will evolve with wireless broadband. Initially, however, its browsing functions are very limited compared with PCs. Consumers may be disappointed if they expect too much from their phones, warns Michele Mackenzie, an analyst with Ovum.

"WAP was never meant as the be-all and end-all of mobile Internet," Mackenzie says. "It will give way gracefully to more sophisticated technologies as and when mobile network improvements allow."

The WAP specification is essentially a microbrowser optimized for the consumer handset, says Goldman, head of the WAP Forum. "It requires minimal RAM, ROM, display, CPU, and keys." It also uses minimal bandwidth, important for today's sub-20-kbps networks.

Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless, GTE Wireless, Nextel, and others now offer Web-enabled phones that use HDML browsers, a precursor to WAP. True WAP-compatible phones are expected to ship this year from Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia. Meanwhile, browsers like Microsoft Mobile Explorer, which supports HTML and WAP, might be the choice for future devices.

From portals to e-mail to commerce, Web services are finding their way to the phone. But because the mobile Web follows the cellular services model, the carriers are still holding the keys to the floodgates.




RELATED STORIES:
Dell: We laugh at your puny Net devices
March 16, 2000
Web phones contain PDAs
March 3, 2000
The wireless Web: A reality check
March 3, 2000
Can you synchronize all your information devices?
January 28, 2000
Vendors offer voice nets, Web phones
November 20, 1998

RELATED IDG.net STORIES:
Pocket PC to wed phone
(PC World Online)
Wireless Palms challenge phones
(PC World Online)
The wireless Web: A reality check
(PC World Online)
Analysis: Wondering about WAP
(The Industry Standard)
Korean cell phones play MP3
(PC World Online)
Travelers to get wireless help
(Computerworld)
Let your messages follow you around
(PC World Online)
Expect instant messages everywhere
(PC World Online)

RELATED SITES:
WAP Forum

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