Subject: Re: WAP - What A Problem...

From: Graham Klyne <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2000 15:57:57 +0100

At 07:12 PM 6/30/00 +0200, Anthony Atkielski wrote:
>Why use SMS instead of just voice?
>
>Has anyone considered the ergonomics of WAP?  Even if it works perfectly,
>how many people are willing to work on a screen smaller than a credit card?
>How many people are capable of touch-typing on a keyboard with only ten soft
>keys that must be pressed in various arcane combinations for almost ever
>letter?  It just doesn't make intuitive sense.

On the face of it, I would have tended to agree.

But I have been astonished by the degree of adoption of SMS (in UK) by 
school children who purchase their own pre-pay mobile phones (for about 
$50-100).  SMS may be awkward, but the per-use cost is  is very low, and 
totally predictable.  And the users in this case soon learn to handle the 
"inadequate" user interface.

But it doesn't stop there:  when I travel abroad, my daughter sends SMS 
messages to my mobile phone, and I respond in kind.  And wherever I am in 
the world, the cost does not very.  And even I am finding the user 
interface manageable for simple messages.

Because it's messaging, not isochronous, SMS can ride "low-grade" bandwidth 
that voice cannot use.  I sometimes think the advantages of messaging are 
lost among those who are used to continuous network connections.

#g

------------
Graham Klyne
([email-masked])

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From: Renfield Kuroda <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2000 02:41:59 +0900

> >how many people are willing to work on a screen smaller than a credit card?

Well, 10 million Japanese, and growing by 20,000 every DAY.

> >letter?  It just doesn't make intuitive sense.

In Japan email and SMS traffic is outstripping voice calls. The number of SMS
and/or emails (in Japan the difference between email and SMS is prtty much
transparent) is growing more rapidly than cell phone penetration and voice calls.

In fact, chat rooms, realtime chat, and message boards are also very popular now,
too.

Regards,

r e n

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From: "Anthony Atkielski" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 00:40:57 +0200

> Well, 10 million Japanese, and growing by 20,000 every DAY.

Only 100 million more to go.

The Japanese, however, have a passion for highly miniaturized gadgets, so
I'm not sure that they are representative.

Personally, I don't even have a laptop, mainly because I find laptops so
incredibly clumsy to use, with their tiny keyboards and bizarre mouse
substitutes and what-not.

> In Japan email and SMS traffic is outstripping
> voice calls.

E-mail via what type of computer or terminal?