WAP is an acronym that used to refer to a specific protocol but is more generally used to described mobile web pages adapted to non-smartphone users. Ever since mobile phones started having internet access, one of the most complicated things to do has been to built WAP pages in a way that even the most simplistic mobile web browsers could render in a usable, if not elegant, way. It is time to kill that practice. With the exception of special cases (carrier-wide, feature-phone-targeted, developing markets, etc), it is time to stop mobile web adaptation for feature phones.
A little over a year ago, I saw the Nielsen chart below in a presentation. It illustrates the dramatic market shift from feature phones to smartphones.
This projection has proven fairly accurate, and at the time of writing this post, smartphone penetration figures in the U.S. seem right on track. When I first saw this graph, I concluded that feature phones would still be important for web content adaptation for several years to come. After all, it still represents about 60% of mobile users in the U.S. today.
But I was wrong.
My conclusion was wrong, because I initially ignored consumer segmentation. All mobile users are not alike in their usage behaviors. The important part of this data is not the fact that 40% of the population now carries a smartphone. The important part is WHICH users are left in the 60% that do not.
Simply put, I believe that users who find value in mobile web access (i.e. the ones that access mobile web) are the innovators, early adopters, and early majority and have already traded up to smartphones. In fact, they likely paid a premium for the ability. Those that are still carrying Motorola RAZRs from 2004 do not experience much value in mobile web access, despite content producers’ best efforts to do what they can with that limited browser, numeric keypad, relatively tiny screen and slow processor. Those that do not find value in mobile web access are hardly accessing the mobile web.
We are approaching a new point in the utility curve of mobile phones in the U.S. Going forward, the late majority and laggards are also migrating away from feature phones, but motivated by different reasons. They upgrade, more often, because their older phones are starting to fail, and it is becoming harder and harder not to buy a smartphone. There are fewer feature phone options to choose from, and the price of entry-level smartphones is no longer at a premium. These segments are upgrading, largely because they need to, and they will not find value in mobile web access, and therefore will not actively use it, at least until they shift to newer handsets. At that point, they may adopt or not, but the vast majority of these segments will never adopt mobile web access on their current phones.
Put another way, those in the remaining 60% of the population with feature phones do not get a very fulfilling experience from the mobile web, and subsequently do not find much value in it. This may still represent a majority of mobile phone users, but they represent an extremely small portion of mobile phone users accessing the web from their devices. While only 40% of the population have smartphones, this represents nearly all of the population that finds significant utility in accessing the mobile web.
What does this mean for WAP? Except for specialized circumstances, cut it from your road-maps. Embrace HTML5 for mobile (believe me, there is still plenty of fragmentation to address), and drastically limit support for anything less. It is resource intensive, and the investment is just not worth it anymore. There are fewer mobile web users on feature phones than you may intuitively think based on the aggregate penetration figures above.
The mobile channel is more than just mobile web though. There are a number of other ways to connect to mobile users from text messaging, apps, mobile coupons, near-field communications, picture messaging, location-based services, and even the basic voice call. As with many things in new media marketing, it is all about the right tool for the job, and the right tool for reaching feature-phone users is almost never the mobile web.
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The ideas in this post may apply to several developed mobile markets but are specifically referencing the United States mobile market here.
