Whopping WAP
Whopping WAP
Keywords Internet, Information technology
A total 50 percent of Europe's leading Internet sites have launched WAP versions of their sites, with more to follow soon, according to an independent survey from Wapland.com, the business and consumer WAP (wireless application protocol) portal.
Excluding popular sites fundamentally unsuited to WAP – for example like http://www.shockwave.com where visitors are simply downloading free software plug-ins for their computers – the survey shows 62 of the 100 most popular sites for European Internet users are EU-based.
Of these sites, a staggering 50 percent already offer a WAP version for wireless surfers. A further 21 per cent will have one up within six months and an additional 3 percent will have done so within 12 months.
"It is encouraging to see so many of the top 100 websites delivering WAP content", said Ben Wood, business development director for Mobile Lifestreams, a wireless consulting and research firm in Newbury (UK). "The big challenge now is to bridge the gap between the reality and the rhetoric surrounding WAP, and make sure that the expectations of end users are met".
Joachim Bamrud, editor of Wapland.com, said: "It's clear from the data that EU Internet companies have kept good pace with new ways for users to get online. The potential for moving everyday tasks like banking and shopping onto mobile, wireless devices that take the Web to wherever a user may be is enormous. In fact, analysts Ovum recently estimated there will be 684 million WAP and wireless Internet service subscribers worldwide by 2006 –appreciably more than the 500 million forecast for straightforward Internet access".
The Wapland.com survey also found that European Internet users visit a lot of US-based sites, few of which have launched WAP versions yet. The USA is some years behind Europe in the implementation of mobile Internet access technology – and WAP in particular.
The survey polled a list of Europe's Top 100 Websites – supplied by MMXI Europe, an affiliate of leading Internet audience measurement research company Media Matrix. MMXI's data listed the 100 Websites with the highest number of unique users for March 2000. Their figures are collected by monitoring the surfing habits of thousands of users in the European countries where Internet use is highest: namely the UK, France and Germany.
Wapland.com was launched in June by leading Norwegian publishing group IT Media, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK-based eHolding. The original Norwegian-language version of the site was launched in February 2000 and is the leading wireless Web portal in Norway with 260,000 page views to date.
