Portals head for the multi-channel door: do mobile portals matter? Just two years ago, Asia was awash with operator-led portals. Around the corner, experts say, is the era of multi-channel markets. (Wireless).

Wireless Asia, January, 2002 by Clark, Robert

At the height of the WAP boom--which, to be honest, was before WAP actually became available--Asian operators rolled out hundreds of WAP-based services and applications. The idea was to become the preferred "portal" for mobile phone users, much in the same way Yahoo, AOL and Lycos are portals in the fixed Internet; a portal by definition being an entrance to a building or, in this case, a set of mobile applications.

As we now know, those who rushed to bring the Internet to the mobile device found it much harder than it looked. The dotcom crash and poor reception to WAP virtually blew all the portals away in favor of the applications that customers use, such as ringtones and logo downloards, text messaging and the odd news alert.

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