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6. i-Mode and WAP:

 

6.1 What is WAP?

WAP (= Wireless Application Protocol) is a specification for presenting and interacting with information on wireless (and other) devices. Technically speaking communications systems consist of many layers (in many cases 7 or more): physical layers (optical fibers, wireless transmission systems, lasers, antennas etc), and software layers (transmission protocols, etc). Good engineering practice requires that these layers are decoupled as much as possible. WAP, as a protocol for presenting and interacting with information is positioned near or at the top of these layers. Therefore WAP can be used on top of different communication systems. There are many different ways to implement commercial services using the WAP protocol. For example, present implementations of commercial services using WAP in Japan and in Europe differ substantially - the user experience is different, commercial models are different, handsets have very different characteristics etc. Therefore it is not useful to identify WAP with one particular implementation. Mostly, the user experience is related to factors which have nothing to do with the WAP specification themselves, but are specific to a particular implementation. In addition, WAP specifications change over time, and are coordinated within the WAP-Forum, which also produces an excellent WAP-FAQ

 

6.2 Does it make sense to compare imode and WAP?

Recently, a large number of newspaper articles, internet discussions etc comparing WAP and imode are written. It's important to keep in mind, that WAP (= Wireless Application Protocol) is a protocol, while imode is a complete wireless internet service at present covering almost all of Japan with 50 million subscribers (as of Summer 2008). Therefore comparing WAP with imode is somewhat like comparing Rolls-Royce-Jet-Engines with United-Airlines or Air France. It's not relevant to compare WAP directly with imode. Today it is relevant to compare WAP with chtml, or to compare a particular WAP implementation (e.g. Japan's EZweb or T-Mobil's WAP service in Germany) with imode. Regarding the future it is important to look at the role of XML, and to follow how the WAP standard evolves. Note also, that imode is a brand and a service mark owned by NTT-DoCoMo. As such, imode branded services could employ one or more different "application protocols" or page description languages in the future.

 

6.3 What is the difference between imode and today's WAP implementations?

Before comparing WAP-implementations and imode please read question 6.2. WAP based wireless internet services today are used in Europe, Japan, Korea and other areas in the world. WAP implementations use a page description language called wml (wireless markup language) while imode uses chtml. Different companies implement wireless internet services using WAP as a protocol in very different ways. For example, WAP based services in Japan, which are in competition with imode, provide a very different user experience than WAP based services in Europe, demonstrating the flexibility of the WAP approach. One important difference from the user and site developer perspective of wireless services is that websites for imode are very similar to ordinary html based internet websites. imode uses chtml as a page description language for imode websites. Therefore a very large number of private imode sites are being created. imode sites can also be inspected with ordinary internet web browsers (although the result differs somewhat from the display of the same pages on imode handsets). Websites for WAP-based services on the other hand need to be written in a new and WAP-specific page description language (wml). However, the real business differences between today's WAP implementations and imode are more in the way these services are marketed, advertised, business models, charging models, the handsets, battery life, handset display quality etc.


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