From: Gregory Alan Bolcer (gbolcer@endtech.com)
Date: Fri Feb 02 2001 - 08:55:08 PST
I'm sure you guys are sick to death worrying
about WAP. Some of us hold out hope against
hope that it really can lead to something useful
beyond a consumer-based, programmer unfriendly,
10 clicks to read your horoscope technology, to something
you can actually do useful things with--probably
as a remote control for your computer. I have
to weigh this against my animosity that Openwave
summarily dismissed us from their partner program
without ever looking at our apps because the person
doing the evaluation didn't understand that we weren't
a content provider, but an apps infrastructure. We were
told that our apps infrastructure (which has open
WML templates with dynamic data for any programmer to
hack to his or her heart's content) doesn't have a
slick enough WML GUI that meets their 10 arbitrary
and sometimes conflicting usability guidelines.
Greg
http://www.planetit.com/techcenters/docs/mobile_wireless-wireless_nets_and_devices/news/PIT20010130S0008/5
(excerpt below).
WAP Wars Resolved, But Anger Remains
Residual Angst - Richard Adhikari
Some industry members remain angry about the way
Geoworks approached the patent issue. "The problem with
what Geoworks did is that they set a deadline -- they said
they'd sue anybody who didn't recognize the validity of
their patent after a certain time," says Endeavor's Bolcer.
"That caused a lot of animosity in the community."
Tom Hunt, vice president of marketing at Pumatech,
agrees. "People always get a bit disgusted when
somebody comes out of the woodwork and starts
swinging an ax," he says.
Will this annoyance lead to continued bickering at WAP
Forum meetings?
Opinion is divided. Endeavor's Bolcer is skeptical: "I don't
see innovation in the WAP technology progressing as
quickly as it should because of the politics involved in the
WAP Forum," he says. Air2Web's Gonzalez is cautious. "If
Geoworks and Openwave have truly buried the hatchet
things will go a bit more smoothly, but there are other
issues, and standards bodies have an inertia of their own"
so things won't really change much, Gonzalez says.
The upshot is, nobody knows for sure. All we can say is
that at least one major issue has been resolved.
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