22.7 Arguments Against WAP


22.7 Arguments Against WAP

Although WAP has drawn a tremendous amount of attention in the business and technology sector, its huge popularity also has drawn criticism that leads one to think that WAP will not develop into a major force impacting business and life. According to David Rensin, CTO at Aether Systems, a handheld infrastructure developer in Owings Mills, Maryland, "WAP is dead." Chief among his complaints was the necessity for rewriting Web sites in WML for every device a WAP-enabled Web site is sent to. WML is used as a technique to get content from an HTML Web site using WAP to small-screen devices. "You have to rewrite the same Web site for a four-line cell phone display and again for an eight-line display," and "the problem [with WAP] is content. Redoing a Web page for multiple sites on different devices is a nightmare," according to Rensin. [8]

Handheld devices are more limited than desktop computers in several important ways. Their screens are small, able to display only a few lines of text, and they are often monochrome instead of color. Their input capabilities are limited to a few buttons or numbers, and entering data takes extra time. They have less processing power and memory to work with, their wireless network connections have less bandwidth, and they are slower than those of computers hard-wired to fast LANs. [9] Web applications are traditionally designed based on the assumption that visitors will have a desktop computer with a large screen and a mouse. A smart telephone cannot display a large color graphic and does not have point-and-click navigation capabilities. As some analysts say, these limitations will hinder WAP as the choice for tomorrow's technology.

[8]Schwartz, E., Wireless Application Protocol draws criticism, available at http://www.cnn.com/2000/tech/computing/03/14/wap.critics.idg/index.html, March 14, 2000.

[9]Furchgott, R., Web to go — sort of: today's net phones are O.K. for e-mail, but surfing is a chore, Business Week, February 14, 2000, p. 144.




Wireless Internet Handbook. Technologies, Standards and Applications
Wireless Internet Handbook: Technologies, Standards, and Applications (Internet and Communications)
ISBN: 0849315026
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 239

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