The Future of the Mobile Internet: Lessons from Looking at Web Use
Abigail J. Sellen, Rachel Murphy · 2002
people who buy a new mobile phone will buy a WAP-enabled phone. It seems that they do this not only because they want the most up-to-date phone, but also because the idea of internet access is appealing. After all, if surfing the Web through your desktop PC is useful, why would it not also be valuable on the move? Unfortunately the data also show that while many people own WAP phones, use of WAP-based services is low. One of the mobile operators reported recently that fewer than 5% of WAP phone owners actually use their internet-based services. Contrast this with two of the success stories for the mobile internet: Research In Motion's BlackBerry and NTT DoCoMo's I-Mode. Both technologies have taken off: the Blackberry mainly in the business market, and the I-Mode mainly in the teen market (and mainly so far in Japan). What is interesting about both devices is that they have been developed by companies with a clear notion of who their end users are, and which have designed their prod