The real WAP market

Cameron, I've just come back from Manila, Philippines and I was amazed at
the how wide-spread the use of text messaging is in Asia. I heard that the
market for WAP services in Asia was second only to Europe.

One reason I believe, is pure logistics (it takes years, yes years, to get
a land phone line). So everyone gets a cell phone instead which uses pre-paid
call units. If you make voice calls, you use up call units. However, WAP
text-messaging is free.

'Texting' bypasses the common "busy signal" problem you get during peak times
of the business day. And since vehicular traffic is horrendous in Manila,
business people keep up to the minute tabs via texting. I made so many appointments
via a rented cell phone and made every one them because of the efficiency
of text messaging.

Parents coordinate car pools, ferrying their kids from school to the next
activity through texting. Lastly, I set up a mini reunion with classmates,
some of whom I had not seen in 20+ years, through texting in 3 days. Try
that with a voice line!

So your market for WAP services must consider locations where the convenience
of conventional communication and transportaion is largely underdeveloped.

Bob

"Cameron Wall" <cameron.wall@connect.com.au> wrote:
>
>Where is the real WAP market??
>
>
>In most of the world the real market for WAP apps. in my opinion does not
>lay in business circles yet in the consumer market, and in the 16-21 age
>group.
>
>In Europe 74% of SMS messages in 1999 were asking the simple question "where
>are you now". Further more if you listen to someone initiate a wireless
call
>they will most of the time ask this question.
>
>So in my opinion a WAP enabled location tracking app. would be a very popular
>solution. However there are many govt. and privacy issues to get over here.
>
>What opinions does others here have on this subject?
>
>Cameron