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Comment by jsjenkins168 | Hacker News Reader

I've heard much the same, although I think this will start to change for the better after the iPhone App Store goes live.

My prediction (and hope) is it ushers an era where consumers expect to have the ability to install any application they want on their mobile device, without having to go through their carrier to do so. I think carriers will start to lose that power and Apple will drive the change.

The best solution is still to stay off deck in the sense of offering a WAP-based web application rather than something that is installed. But this obviously wont work for some type of applications (Loopt is one of them). Loopt is doing great though, I am excited about their success.

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The WAP deck will only be important as long as the current handset install-base is present. The iPhone changed the industry from day one, but the realities of mobile web are still present, at least for the next year.

Loopt is in a position to be on the cusp, with a leg-up over all the new comers BECAUSE they wrangled the WAP deck before the turnover.

The "WAP Deck" represent the idea that people should find their mobile services or "content" from a startpage when the go online on their phone. this make no sense for anyone who know how the internet grew. Google overtook Yahoo when they still believed that the internet should be organized like a directory, like there were a limited "shelf" space. That wasn't true and it wont be true for mobile either.

Admob, one of the largest mobile ad network has a monthly reach of 50 million unique users, that's about the size of one of the largest carriers in the world.

I'm certain that the concept of "Carrier WAP Deck" will not grow in the same pace as the open mobile web....

Congrats to Loopt! :)

Agreed. (Plus Admob is amazing. We see fantastic results with them) My one rebut to your Google-Yahoo metaphor is that there is less specific input with a phone, it's more contextual. With a keyboard and mouse its easy to navigate the web, but a number pad (or touch) and limited screen space means your navigation takes a hit and relevance becomes all the more important. For that reason the WAP deck is still clinging on and even players like Google and Yahoo are striving for a portal strategy in the mobile world.

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