Semantic web powered advertising the killer mobile application?

I wrote 22 April 2001 (was: "Re: Review WAP 2.0 Arch."):

>... One interesting possibility is that I-mode content might be WAP 
>compatible, since I-mode uses the cHTML subset of HTML and WAP 2 allows 
>for XHTML. I intend to look at the implications of this for an Australian 
>National University course, in the next few weeks ...

It took a little longer than a few weeks (four years), but yes, I tried 
iMode is somewhat WAP compatible 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/2005/wd/imode.html#handset>.

As long as you don't want to do anything fancy, it is feasible to create 
web pages which will display on both i-mode and WAP2 phones as well as on a 
conventional desktop computer web browser 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/2005/wd/index.html#udf>.

But I still can't see a business model to support web pages on mobile 
phones by themselves. Technically it can be done, but is it useful enough 
to be worth doing? If you are providing an accessible version of a web site 
for the disabled (as you must) and one for low bandwidth users (as you 
should), then with a little bit more work it will display on phones and 
PDAs as well. But will this be enough to make a useful web site?

WAP 1 was a dead end as it created applications which were not viable on 
their own and were not compatible with the mainstream web. Similarly the 
MHP standard included HTML for web like applications on TVs, without 
intending to be compatible with web applications on PCs, resulting in 
another orphan <http://www.tomw.net.au/2001/itv.html>.

Rather than aiming for a cut down web on a phone, or walled garden 
applications (although iMode is a very successful walled garden), mobile 
applications might be looked at as a way to rethink the web. As an example 
I have been very skeptical of the "Semantic Web", but as a way to chop 
information into small chunks of meaningful information and rearrange them 
it might suit a small device. Used to enhance e-commerce applications and 
e-advertising this might make commercial viable applications 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/2005/dm/eadvertising.html>.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington@tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                http://www.tomw.net.au/
Director, ACS Communications Tech Board   http://www.acs.org.au/ctb/
Visiting Fellow, ANU      Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml

Received on Tuesday, 20 September 2005 23:17:42 UTC