Wap is Crap

WAP is crap and the growing epidemic of WAPlash are two of the familiar taunts repeated by users of phones with wireless application protocol browsers, which allow users to access so-called Web content on their phones.

WAP has received a bad rap, not only from the media, but also from users of WAP phones who choose not to access data on them. Less than 20 percent of Americans with phones that have WAP browsers actually ever access WAP sites, according to Jupiter Communications analyst Lucas Graves. Only 10 percent of Sprint PCS’ customers access the “wireless Web,” according to Jay Highly, vice president of business marketing for Sprint PCS.

It’s cumbersome to input data on a phone’s keypad and read from such a tiny screen, analysts say. Data is transmitted slowly at 9 kbs and the user pays airtime for the content.

However, don’t blame WAP as a technology for the lack of interest in the phones, analysts say. Perhaps WAP developers are to blame for over-hyping the technology and then receiving a black eye for it, but some think the real limitation of WAP is the lack of compelling content written in its wireless markup language (WML).

On the other hand, software developer Openwave has 14 million subscribers worldwide — which means there’s little interest when compared to the 70 million WAP-enabled handsets that have been sold.