Increasingly, there are more handset vendors coming up with new models [of WAP phones]. But by the end of this year or early next year, most vendors will have a whole series, so practically all phones will be WAP-enabled. |
It took quite some time for WAP to gain [public] awareness, so I don't see how I-mode can do it overnight. Definitely, [I-mode] is going to be a powerful standard, if it indeed becomes an international standard. |
It's like the chicken and the egg scenario. If you have content, then you have subscribers. And if you have a lot of subscribers then you have a lot of content ... so if we wait longer, we will see more content, more devices, and more subscribers. |
Things are definitely picking up in terms of the deployment of WAP services. Carriers are all putting in the infrastructure and they're offering commercial services. It's now a matter of bringing the awareness to the next level. |
With GPRS coming in, there will be an explosion of wireless data because it's going to be faster than desktop narrow band. A lot of carriers are already putting on trial GPRS so I'm sure that commercial services will be available first half next year. It just now waits for the GPRS handsets to be available. |