Mobile Internet Is Getting Better

LAS VEGAS -- Mobile Internet services today frustrate many users, but that will change over the next year, said Don Listwin, president and chief executive officer of Openwave Systems in a keynote speech here at Comdex Fall on Tuesday.

"To date, the mobile Internet has been a disappointing experience for you [the user]. In the next 12 months you will see a radical change," said Listwin. "You may have heard of WAP [Wireless Application Protocol] is crap and WAPlash. The experience is horrible; it's one that no one would use."

Listwin took a swipe at Nokia, which on Monday made a push for open standards for mobile services.

"Big companies suggest that their standards are open standards. There are some proposals on the table from vendors that say their standards should be the common standards. Well, there are some bodies in the world that decide, such as the IETF [Internet Engineering Task Force]," Listwin said.

At issue is the merging of Internet standards, such as e-mail and instant messaging, with mobile standards, such as SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), Listwin said.

"There are the telephony standards and Internet standards. Somebody has to bring those two together," he said.

Showing Off Software

On stage, Openwave demonstrated some of the mobile services offered in Japan by J-Phone, which uses Openwave software. Also demonstrated was the instant messaging product for mobile phones that was announced on Monday. Openwave makes browser software used in about 65 percent of the world's mobile phones, according to the company, and also makes mobile service platforms.

"Information is growing geometrically and having control of that information is what we're struggling with," said Listwin.

The information device of the future is the mobile phone, according to Openwave.

"The real device that people are going to use is the mobile phone. New phones have a mouse for point and click and have menu structures. We are moving away from a device that was only for voice calls to a device that is for phone calls and for messaging," he said.

Listwin's speech didn't bring many surprises, says one audience member.

"I wish I could say it was an 'ooh and ah' speech, but it wasn't," says Andrew Snauffer, a Philadelphia-based IT consultant with Accenture. "They offered a glimpse of the capabilities that are coming down the road, but nothing particularly impressed me."