Budde can see these kinds of applications driving a niche WAP market of around 3 percent to 4 percent of the overall cellular market, but no more than that. That's not a small market-in the next couple of years we'll see the number of cellular users in New Zealand grow from around 1 million to around 2 million. Budde believes phone companies are pushing WAP services as a way of propping up declining revenue streams. They need to sell more phones. The telcos have seen the price of a call plummet and need a new revenue stream as well.
Every company wants to 'capture' customers.
The Hyatt hotel, Farmers department store, Mercedes Benz-they all want to build relationships with the customer. Budde says these kinds of companies will offer free phones or calls in exchange for a closer relationship with the end customer. You may not be comfortable offering up all your demographic information to Mercedes because you don't deal with them very often, but Farmers or the grocery store might not be a problem. These companies will gain valuable information about their customers as well as priority access to them. Customers will get free phones and connections.