Customers will use wireless devices to access the Internet only if
they have a good reason to do so. "Just because they can" is not a
reason why customers will use a wireless service. This has been made
painfully clear by the growing backlash against WAP (Wireless
Application Protocol) as it is rolled out--and ignored by customers--
in Europe. In Germany , for example, where WAP is widely available,
less than 1% of cellular subscribers opt to use the service, and
those who do only access the Internet from their phones once a week
on average.
Why are people not flocking to many wireless Internet services in the
same way that they flocked to the Web? Because the wireless industry
is not focused on the customer experience.
To succeed, a wireless service must provide a customer experience
that is better than existing alternatives.
Few companies today offer wireless services that interest customers.
Users of WAP phones rarely use their devices to access the news
headlines, weather report, and sport scores that make up the bulk of
currently available WAP content. After all, that content is easily
accessible through many other channels, such as newspapers, radio,
television, and PC-based web sites and e-mail.
Yet traditional content remains at the center of most wireless
companies' strategies. The major U.S. carriers--Verizon, AT&T,
SBC/Bell South and Sprint--focus their wireless Internet services
on news, weather, sports scores, and stock quotes. Sprint's "wireless
Web" service, for example, focuses on its news, weather and sports
offerings from a variety of providers. Sprint customers must scroll
through these menu options before they can access any other services,
which are tucked away on the second page.
The wireless industry has mostly ignored the customer experience for
a variety of reasons: launching services quickly to gain market
share, or being seduced by the hyped-up possibilities of the
technology, for example. As a result, many basic services are too
difficult to use. Sprint's wireless e-mail service, for example
requires its customers to set up an account and password before using
the service. This is poor design, since it's difficult for customers
to enter text on the phone keypad. If Sprint had focused on the
customer experience, it could have avoided that mistake by simply
identifying customers by their (unique) phone numbers.
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