Abstract
This IDC study examines the possibility that mass market feature phone Web usage models may veer in the direction of widget frameworks rather than browsers over the next several years. For the typical feature phone customer, mobile Web/WAP experiences often fall short of the expectation set in a wireline PC context, leading to depressed usage patterns and moderated data ARPU. A new breed of widget framework providers (sometimes called on-device portals, or ODPs) have emerged to bridge this gap and are poised to challenge the prevailing WAP 2.0/xHTML model for mobile Web portal hegemony.
"Mobile widget frameworks tend to support richer and more personalized media experiences and superior reporting/tracking, are less demanding in terms of publisher/brand technical expertise needs, and offer greater access to feature phone capabilities," says Lewis Ward, research manager in the Mobile Consumer Services group. "But widget frameworks also tend to be more expensive to deploy and update than WAP 2.0 sites, are limited to the device database supported by the vendor, and could increase select security/privacy risks. At the end of the day, it may be more about finding a proper balance between the two models."
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents
- IDC Opinion
- In This Study
- Situation Overview
- WAP 2.0 Model Overview
- Figure: MySpace UI Comparison
- Widget Framework Model Summary
- Figure: Mobile Media UI Comparison
- Future Outlook
- Essential Guidance
- Learn More
- Related Research
- Synopsis
