Word: wap
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Merita's bid to become Northern Europe's phone-in bank of the future depends a lot on the latest technology. Customers can use cutting-edge wireless application protocol (WAP) browsers, built into the latest generation of European phones, which allow customers to enjoy full Internet access to their accounts. WAP phone owners can check account balances, pay bills, transfer money and even buy shares on the Finnish stock market...
...That's a wise philosophy considering how high the stakes are. Being the first mover in any new technology is a huge risk, especially within an industry where consumers have come to resent being promised so much yet receiving so little (WAP, anyone?) But Hutchison has decided the potential benefits, which could be vast, outweigh the risks, no matter how daunting. As a new entrant without any legacy network to upgrade, 3 is hoping to leapfrog the competition and establish an important early foothold in the telecom standard for the future?a future in which slower rivals are stuck with...
...good window onto the Web," says Ross Bott, a venture capitalist at Silicon Valley-based Redpoint Ventures. Of course, we've heard that song before. The fact is that about 70% of cell phones sold worldwide in 2002 are capable of surfing the Net through wireless application protocol (WAP) browsers. But almost no one does, because WAP proved to be a miserable experience rather than the magical Web in your phone that was promised. But with 900 million mobile phones on the market worldwide that will need to be upgraded, hopes for a mobile Internet will continue to spring anew...
What is it about the wireless Internet that brings out the worst in otherwise advanced economies? First there were the Internet phones in Europe that used wireless access protocol, or WAP. They flopped spectacularly. Then the spotlight turned to Japanese mobile operator DoCoMo's wireless Internet service, i-mode. DoCoMo dazzled at first, but average usage and revenue per subscriber are falling in Japan, as in Europe. The U.S. can barely deliver reliable voice service, much less wireless Internet, which would seem destined to be another techno-dud service...
...future just isn't what it used to be. Investors and consumers alike have gotten the message: Forget all that stuff about "the Internet in the palm of your hand" - mobile phones are for talking, and maybe some short texting on the side. Those vaunted wap handsets turned out to be an unusually complicated and slow way to get a football score. And for most of us, GPRS - the data-friendly wireless system the boffins call 2.5G - remains just another acronym. (The consultancy Analysys reckons only one-third of people with GPRS phones use the new services.) "Even though...