Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 18
Mobile Internet:
Past, Present, and the Future
Anne Kaikkonen
Nokia Corporation, Finland
ABSTRACT
The Mobile Internet is no longer a new phenomenon; the first mobile devices supporting Web access
were introduced over 10 years ago. During the past 10 years many user studies have been conducted
that have generated insights into mobile Internet use. The number of mobile Internet users has increased
and the focus of the studies has switched from the user interface to user experiences. Mobile phones
are regarded as personal devices: the current possibility of gathering more contextual information and
linking that to the Internet creates totally new challenges for user experience and design.
INTRODUCTION
disappointment after such high expectations made
it impossible to take WAP seriously in later years.
WAP had become merely a joke, albeit many
network operators kept on developing services on
the WAP protocol (Kaikkonen 2005), and made
revenue on these services as increasing numbers
of users used these services. For user experience
experts it became clear that the technology and
protocol behind a service do not really matter to
users; what is more important is what you can
do with the services. The success of iMode in
Japan is well known, but it is rarely mentioned
that other Japanese operators, like KDDI, built
When the mobile Internet was launched in the
late 90s it was claimed to be the Internet in your
pocket. With hindsight, it is easy to say that this
metaphor was not justified, as it did not take the
user perception of the Internet into consideration.
The huge Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
hype and hangover following the hype have been
widely reported (for example, Pannanen (2000),
Sokela (2002), and in a 2000 Znet article). This
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