Mobile website or ODP |
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Mobile Site vs. ODP On Device Portal or Mobile portal WAP, or a mobile Internet Portal and an ODP or mobile application serve different functions, just like the website vs. the portal, ad ODP should be a "route" to obtain info quickly and as effortlessly as possible, whereas a WAP site allows you a gateway to general information. The key difference here is that unlike the web, a phone interface is not the most conducive to personalising, entering information, or choosing info for customising the ODP experience. This is why the better ODPs complement a website, where the user can customise their most commonly used info, or that info most relevant to being on the move and ad it to a mobile "briefcase". A typical website can have dozens of channels or top line navigation buttons, like the BBC for example; It is hard enough sometimes to navigate the bbc.co.uk even on a large LCD screen, let alone on a mobile screen. This is not a criticism of the BBC, not its site, which is one of the best web sites out there, but just the sheer overload of information means that it does not lend itself to a general WAP site or ODP that has not been customised via the web, or entered by people who are familiar with the web. I use the BBC and FT sites constantly, however, an BBC ODP would allow me to take my most used or most useful channels with me on the move, for example: Food/recipes; weather in 3 locations (work, home, other); tech, business and UK news; and TV alerts and schedules for Top Gear, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and that's about it. I could do this in just a few clicks on the web, with a "add to my ODP" button next to all content - setting this up on my mobile would be a unique experience; never to be repeated. So where does WAP figure here? Well it doesn't! WAP is what I use to browse google for the three new bands on Jonathan Ross, and to see if the Hamster has fallen off of another driving seat while doing 300mp/h again. With the FT ODP, I would have their currency converter (which like supermarkets, the FT seem to move the most frequently visited sections around just to annoy me), the only columnists like Lucy Kellaway, and my relevant/most read news channels. In a sense, ODPs complement and feed WAP, with your info coming to your phone daily, links to relevant info on Vodafone Live or Orange World or whatever WAP portal you operator has will encourage WAP usage. In a few words, WAP is a gateway to general information, and just one is enough, ODPs are portals to specific information, and expect to have a few on your phone in the month's to come. Additionally, unlike WAP, ODPs allow companies to accurately track usage and understand their customers better. Back to top | Comment | Contact originally posted by Christian Borrman 20:43pm 10/11/06, last updated 17:52pm 13/05/08
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