Who Wants to Surf by Phone, Anyway?

Web-enabling a mobile phone is lost on many business users, who aren't browsing or sending e-mail but just talking on the instruments as they would any cell phone, a study shows.

Eighty to 90 percent of business users surveyed have quit using the data capabilities and use the phones for voice communications only, according to a study by market-research and consulting company Meta Group. Phones that support Wireless Application Protocol can support a mini-browser and many Web communications.

Meta Group researchers conducted 15 informal surveys of between 50 and 100 users of WAP-enabled phones.

Analysts say users find it too difficult to get digital information from a cell phone--that the effort of punching phone keys outweighs the threshold for perceived value.

No Surfing for Its Own Sake

"If it takes you 5 minutes to get a stock quote on the [WAP] phone, why not just call the broker?" says Jack Gold, a vice president of Web and collaboration strategies at the Meta Group.

The novelty has worn off, agrees one user.

"It's OK, it's nothing special," says Niall McCann, a Belfast-based Web developer and user of a WAP-enabled phone, who was not involved in the Meta survey. He estimates he has cut his use of WAP services by about 50 percent since he acquired his Nokia 7110 last year.

"I wouldn't say I've stopped using it," he adds "There's plenty of sites out there. You'll be sitting in a queue somewhere in an airport, and you can look for the weather or the news. It's a good reference tool, but you can't do any serious work on it," McCann says.

Still Refining the Technology

Many factors contribute to the rate of abandonment, Meta's Gold says. WAP services such as financial transactions and travel services are difficult to access and have limited content, slow networks, long delays, and generally poor design.

"It's not a question of 3G," Gold says, referring to plans for the third-generation wireless networks capable of higher data transmission speeds. "It's better devices, better architecture ... a whole lot of things need to get better before this will take off."

Until ergonomic concerns and other issues are solved, WAP won't meet hyped-up expectations, Gold notes. "There were promises made and promises unfulfilled by the phone companies," he says.

Sucessful wireless devices will conform to individual needs rather than attempt for the all-in-one answer, Gold says. Heavy data users will opt for handheld devices with a wireless modem, while users whose focus is on communication rather than data will buy tiny smart phones with data services as an added function.