Best Uses of WAP?

bildstorm asks: "Has anyone seen a really good use for WAP? So far, for most of what I've seen WAP is just a nifty little toy which the paranoid use to monitor their stocks and make sure their flight is on time. But aside from that is there any good use of it other than as a buzzword?"

definitely this

[Anonymous Coward]

http://nyheter.idg.se/display.asp?I D=000823-CO9 [nyheter.idg.se] [sorry, in swedish only.]

Order marijuana with your wap-phone. iToke, a dutch company, will next month start servicing danish users with 2grams of marijuana. You order with your phone and it will be delievered via bike withing 30 minutes.

payment is made with a special iToke cash card which is refillable online using a credit card

The best use

[titus-g]

of WAP would probably have to be as a 'sound effect' in comic books.

No

[Kris_J]

There is nothing that WAP can do that a pager, SMS or a simple voice call can not. When Bluetooth is finally released the combination of a PDA, a mobile and an always-on (charged by the packet) connection will finally blow WAP out of the water.

Re:No

[Stilero]

Well, with the introduction of GPRS (and later UMTS) combined with WAP 1.2 the services will improve a lot. WAP 1.2 supports push-technology, and GPRS is packet-switched; you are logically always connected. Then you can receive commercial stuff, e-mail notifications, etc etc, according to your profile at the network operator.
A combination of Bluetooth and WAP will also be interesting. Higher bit-rate and free? location-specific services will be in the customers best interest I think.

WAP with a silent C

[Nik Picker]

Here in the UK WAP was ( and is ) being promoted and psuhed with all the usual marketing splendour and cluelessness that seems to accompany any situation where the media feels it has a 'handle' on the technology. The problem is , as has beenmentioned before, that its just no use. Its slow, has a poor interface ( mobile keypads are a poor alternative to a keyboard) gives limited information and does not feel integrated with the Web.

I should point out that I own a Nokia 7110e Wap enabled phone. I did not purchase the phone because it had WAP. I purchased it for its IRDA and Internal Modem with these I can use my PDA ( Handspring Visor) to surf the web and send emails much more effeciently than with Wap.

BT Cellnet actually have a advert for the technology where in a Girl sitting on a Bus Emails (form here phone) her friend asking about the weather. as usuall all the geeks in my Group point out that she could gave SMS'd the message in less time and more effeciently.

I get asked occasionaly if I will be developing WAP applications. I made a few suggestions all of which are better suited to SMS these are.

1. Spam a Exhibitor Attendee monile with special offers from Exhibitors providing they attend the stand within X minutes and display the message (C) Nik Butler
2. Inform patients when Glasses or prescriptions can be collected.(C) Nik Butler
3. Send Cat servicing reminders and history to a car owner, giving details of who to contact.(C) Nik Butler

As you can see all of these simply rely on the user receiving data to their phone. Which is in essence all they require to act on information.

For my Money HTML and possibly XML provide a smarter document structure for delivering content if designers could consider less client side reliability in their sites and more Server Side information and layout it could be implemented for a wider audience.

Stocks and flights

[Ratface]

Ermm, what's so bad about being able to check your flight times from your phone wherever you are? (OK, so checking stocks is a bit "hooray henry!")

Seriously, most of the really exciting possibilities with WAP are still around the corner. One of the main upgrades to the network and phone systems that will be introduced in WAP 1.2 is the possibility for the user to give out information on where they currently are. This opens up a whole new range of location based services.

Imagine being on a holiday in Europe and being able to use a single site in conjunction with a connected mobile device to automatically receive information about the area you are currently in. As you walk down Strøget in Copenhagen, you use your phone to get information about building of interest on the street and receive an electronic coupon giving you 10% discount in a local shop.

That evening, your service recommends a great restaurant near the hotel and allows you to book a ticket for a concert at Tivoli. Such services exist today for computer users, but combining this with mobile devices opens up new possibilities.

I think that even WAP today opens up some great possibilities. While I was at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark this year (I'm not actually from Denmark, it's just been a useful example!), I used my WAP phone to keep tabs on work email, get weather information, find out changes to the festival program and get information about the festival's response to the tragedy when 9 people died at the Pearl Jam concert. That was all pretty damn useful and was possible in an environment where I woudn't dream of taking my laptop (which would require a mobile for connectivity anyway and would run out of battery WAY earlier).

So, no killer apps here yet, but certainly a useful toolfor people who need access to data while on the move.

"Give the anarchist a cigarette"

Fishing for ideas ?

[jarkko]

You wouldn't happen to have any waste capital lying around would you ?

"Son, you must have an idea and VISION . Get those and we (anonymous coward financing inc.) will make you bathe in corporate capital"

Seriously folks, if you want an idea here's one for free:

SEX

Re:WAP with a silent C

[GilesP]

1. Spam a Exhibitor Attendee monile with special offers from Exhibitors providing they attend the stand within X minutes and display the message (C)Nik Butler

I hate to tell you this but this application has already been developed. I worked on it at my previous company ~7months ago. It has also been expanded into more everyday situations.

2. Inform patients when Glasses or prescriptions can be collected.(C) Nik Butler

3. Send Cat servicing reminders and history to a car owner, giving details of who to contact.(C) Nik Butler

I know of two companies currently developing WAP and SMS based systems similar to these last two suggestions. Perhaps your copyright notice is a little unfounded.

For my Money HTML and possibly XML provide a smarter document structure for delivering content if designers could consider less client side reliability in their sites and more Server Side information and layout it could be implemented for a wider audience.

As for you last point, I agree to a certain extent with you. However I feel that HTML is far too cumbersome for anything other than PC based web browsing.

XML is the way to go, with server side processing formatting that data in to the most suitable format for the current client, whether that is a PC web browser, a mobile phone, a PDA or your internet enabled washing machine.

Re:No

[Kris_J]

SMS also supports, nay thrives on, push technology. I receive the first 100 or so characters of my e-mail to my phone (outside of office hours) and I even have the option to relatively easily reply. There are heaps of email-esq push-type services that work just as well with SMS as with WAP (if not better). Have a look at www.update.optus.net.au [optus.net.au] and www.blueskyfrog.com [blueskyfrog.com]

Re:Fishing for ideas ?

[Paulo]

Actually, there IS at least one german company working to deliver pr0n content to WAP users.
(Don't remember names, URLs nor if this has been submitted here. It did appear at www.barrapunto.com, the spanish counterpart o Slashdot; just search there for "WAP" and you'll find it).

charitable warning

[streetlawyer]

Hmmm, yeh, giving your credit card number to a drug smuggling company, sounds like a reeeeeally good idea.

Price comparison engine

[Matt_Bennett]

I have heard an ad on local radio here (in Austin, TX, USA) that offers a price comparison service. You can walk into a store with a phone and compare prices with a bunch of different stores, or enter information yourself. I don't remember the URL- wireless information services are too expensive on the cellular plan I have.

So far, this is the only application I have seen for WAP that I would be interested in using, email would be nice, though I think it would be really frustrating trying to read email on a 1"x1" screen, let alone compose on a numeric keypad.

Sex has been done...

[darylp]

Check out http://www.wapdrive.net/ohmywap [wapdrive.net] for monochromatic pixellated babes, literally in the palm of your hand.

What more could a geek ask for, apart from a splashproof phone cover that is?

It's a fun toy really.

[darylp]

Got one of those 7110's myself. As far as making it 'useful' goes, the only thing I can really think of is if you were too lazy to waddle over to the computer to check if anyone's sent you email...

The form factor's too crap to allow you to actually REPLY to your emails, and then you can only read them if you step through about half a paragraph at a time.

But it's a nice little toy, and it's moderately trivial to set up and test your own WAP site. (Provided you go through Breathe in the UK, rather than the abysmal Genie.) Plugged a WML convertor into my web templates in about 10 minutes! (Just trying to remember what the point was!)

And I'm surprised no-one's mentioned http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~erikkr i/slashdot.wml [ifi.uio.no] - A damn sight better than Slashdot's own WAP interface.

Re:No

[bueller]

SMS is great, and you can do a lot, but it is limited to 160 characters, so typically you get 100 or so and some advertising or wrapping from the company providing you the service. SMS is also store and forward technology.

To say that WAP isn't needed because you can do it with SMS is almost like arguing we don't need the web because e-mail will do it all.

WAP isn't just for mobile phones, and it is another marker of the convergence of PDAs and mobile phones. As a previous poster noted, GPRS is a big advance tied in with WAP.

The killer app for WAP will come from someone who is sitting somewhere with their phone/PDA and who'll think "If only I had access to the net now I could do xxx"

You will start to see a swag of location based services that will based on your current position and the server will access a map database to be able to find you the closest resturant/bar/theatre/post office etc.The new nokia phones can display graphics so there is a good chance you'll get a map to where you are going.

Then there is purchasing from vending machines (big in certain parts of Europe I hear) where at the moment you ring a phone number in a soft drink machine, it debits your phone account and you get a drink. Wouldn't it be better if as you approached a drink machine it sensed your presence, displayed a drink menu on your phone, you select a drink and out it comes.

The point about voice calls etc being able to do much of this is true (heck I can check flight arrivals via the phone, or on the net too), there is always more than one way to do things, why not have the choice?

WAP browsers at the moment are akin to using lynx on a 4 line terminal, but as technology moves on things will move in leaps and bounds.

About 10 years ago Xerox PARC was playing around with PARCTabs, a device that had a touch sensitive LCD display, three buttons able to be operated by the hand you held the device in, and an infrared port. It had a baby 8 bit processor in it and got all of its applications from a server. The idea was that buildings would be wired with lots of IR basestations and you could do a bunch of stuff with your hand held Tab (play network games, read/write mail, schedule etc).

As PDAs have progressed I've seen them embody the ideas of the PARCTab, with the exception that they couldn't communicate. The IR ports on the palms were the first signs of the other half of the equation, bluetooth is a huge sign, and WAP sits in there too.

The company I'm currently doing work for is in the process of fitting out new offices, and as part of that they will be installing a wireless office on a scale as yet unseen worldwide - over 1000 employees and several floors. The floors will be wired with mobile basestations, and all staff will get a WAP enabled mobile phone.

You ain't seen nothing yet

[sohp]

There's a little company in Portland, OR, called Qsent [qsent.com] that has some interesting products out and in the pipeline. One, IQradio, allows you to input a location and radio programming you are interested in an get the stations in that area that have the programming. Another will allow you to hail a taxi/limo/whatever from your Palm or telephone.

Re:No

[Cato]

Errr, Bluetooth will get you about 10 meters - hardly a replacement for the use of CSD as a carrier for WAP. Perhaps you mean GPRS?

The Phone Book, Dammit!

[human bean]

What do you NEED when you carry around a phone?

White or yellow, business directory, etc. All you need.

Or do you like paying fifty cents (or more) per lookup?

Sometimes, just a plain, simple calculator would be nice, too.

Re:No

[Kris_J]

The point about voice calls etc being able to do much of this is true (heck I can check flight arrivals via the phone, or on the net too), there is always more than one way to do things, why not have the choice?

Why re-invent the wheel? Two similar services arriving at the same time is fine, but "info-lines" have been around for ages, why now do them with WAP. And once the screen becomes larger, like on a PDA, what does WAP offer that HTML does not? Again, we already have HTML-based browsers on PDAs, why re-invent the wheel?

Re:Stocks and flights

[paranoidfish]

That evening, your service recommends a great restaurant near the hotel and allows you to book a ticket for a concert at Tivoli. Such services exist today for computer users, but combining this with mobile devices opens up new possibilities.

my first thought on reading this was "Tivoli [tivoli.com] do concerts as well as software?".

My second was "great, more advertising pushed on me". Seriously, why use a mobile phone to look for a restaurant in a street when you can just walk down the street and see what you find? Any restaurant that needs to advertise in tourist guides is a restaurant not worth going to (imho), especially when there are shedloads of fantastic places to eat in all major cities if you look more than ten meters away from the beaten track. If you're in your home town, why rely on an advertising service when you can use the same phone to speak to your friends and ask for recommendations?

The same is true of every other use for WAP. People often joke that there is no point using a WAP website to check something, when it is cheaper and faster to phone the company directly and ask the person at the other end. It's also a hell of a lot more flexible.

Even the next big thing in wap, the idea of location specific content, is already available over SMS or Audio to users of Vodafones traffic system in the UK. And nobody uses it.

The idea of inventing a technology, then working out what it is useful for creates things that aren't useful for anything. Creating technology that there is a demand for creates things that people use. It's the difference between WAP and the internet.

The very fact that this question is being asked says more about WAP than any answers ever could

Re:The Phone Book, Dammit!

[RhetoricalQuestion]

Sometimes, just a plain, simple calculator would be nice, too.

But my phone has a calculator....

WAP porn

[Pseudonymus Bosch]

Check this sotory at Barrapunto [barrapunto.com]

You will need some Spanish and Portuguese, though.
__

Re:No

[teaser_stud]

With the phone.com server and microbrowser you can send net alerts -- basically a link to a WML page which the phone immediately displays. This is an improvement over text only, one way SMS.

WAP usage

[figen]

I am an avid WAP-user (work related) from Norway, and here's my opinion on the most useful services:
Overview of police acitivity / controls in trafic.
There is a rather popular service which lists the current places and type of control that is taking place. Extremely useful information when driving (especially longer stretches). It might say "0900am: Laser control in city XXX, by the bridge, north going". The system is just a private homepage, based on alerts posted by the avergage Joe user (from his WAP-phone or web-based)
Access to mail account
I really like being able to access my email account from anywhere. And not just ordinary POP/IMAP, but even my Outlook account off the company intranet (with the right software and security considerations from the GSM carrier). With a smartphone such as the Nokia9110 or Ericsson R380, it is quite acceptable to read and even reply (briefly). With an ordinary WAP-phone, it's still a hazzle, but still heaps better than any SMS-based system.
General news
Most, if not all, major news services (mostly papers) have WAP-editions based on their web-services (here in Norway anyway). There's plenty of times where a newspaper would be handy in every-day life (I'm sure even non-newspaper-addicted people can think of at least one...:-), and now I always carry ten of them right in my pocket. Always updated as well.
Travel booking and guides
I don't travel that much personally, but when I do, I really appreciate the availability of numerous city guides. And especially when making travel arrangements on-the-fly. Check the schedule of the airlines, or even book a seat (or change your booking to a later flight as you just read in the cityguide that your favorite band is playing here tonight).
Auctions
need to stick to your computer whenever bidding for something on E-bay? heck, just re-bid from the subway on your way home.
Killing potentially interesting discussion with facts
Oh man, this is a good one. I always tend to get into pointless discussions with a friend of mine about just about everything. How many people live in Mexico City? Who won the world-cup in 1970? Are there crocodiles on the American continent or just in Australia? And so on.. Kinda handy to have an encyclopedia in your pocket.. Look it up, brag like an idiot if you're right, claim the service is down if you're wrong.. :-)

And the list goes on.. The main point is that WAP is great because it is ..well mobile. Anywhere, anytime. Not everywhere, all the time!
We are running WAP over 9600 CSD, so there is a lot be desired in terms of speed and convenience. (even though, my experience is that WAP services really does not require more bandwidth, slow browsers/phones are the main problem). Setting up an connection is rather slow (15 sec), but in comparrison, how long does it take to boot your laptop? With packet switched networks thing will improve dramatically, even though you will probably never use a wap-phone over a PC. They complement eachother rather than compete.
Also, we should not forget that WAP is a pretty good standard (not flawless, though). It is very well adapted to wireless devices, regardless of speed and network setup. Without a well though-out standard, I fear the wireless communications would be be mess of separate systems (heck, WAP is flaky enough as it is, especially come implementation time...) When networks improve, as will the usability of WAP, just as the Internet usability improves as bandwidth increases. It also has the (planned) features of providing a standardized interface to PUSH, identification (SIM-based for example) and so on (just about everything that might be useful on a networked wireless device), which is taking it a step further than just HTML vs. WML.

Re:WAP with a silent C

[onion2k]

Couple of minor things..

1: WML is XML. It has a specified format and DTD/schema, but its still XML. The giveaway is the ?XMl.. line.
2: XML reformatting to HTML/WML/WashingMachineML hsa been done many times. I wrote an RDF to HTML/WML conversion prog just the other day.. Slashdot headline on WAP.. yes, I am that geeky.

Monitoring

[drshannon]

At my company (web startup) we use WAP to send the sys admins updates on the status of the disk array, the load on the box, a 'w', and to send us alerts when something goes wrong where ever we are.

Very Handy.