In the UK we have been hit by a huge billboard marketing campaign for the launch of I-Mode (on O2’s network). One of the adverts says “I am faster than WAP”.

Is this a repeat of O2’s disastrous “Surf the Net” campaign, the one that gave users the impression that WAP was just like using the Web (i.e. broadband)?

I-Mode on O2 will use a GPRS bearer, similar to most WAP phones in the UK. To say that I-Mode is faster is problematic. Ignoring theoretical technical comparisons (see my book for that), the end-user is not going to get a “faster than WAP” experience, assuming that this is a meaningful comparison. After all, the word “WAP” has taken a back seat in customer facing materials these days, precisely because it doesn’t mean much to the user.

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