| Smart Phones |
| Wireless Application Protocol |
| According to the Strategis Group, there will be more than 530 million wireless subscribers by the year 2001. New estimates report that the number of wireless subscribers will break the one billion mark by 2004, and a "substantial portion of the phones sold that year will have multimedia capabilities." These multimedia capabilities include the ability to retrieve Email, and push and pull information from the Internet. In order to guide the development of these exciting new applications, the leaders of the wireless telecommunications industry formed the Wireless Application Protocol Forum (www.wapforum.org). |
| The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is the de-facto world standard for the presentation and delivery of wireless information and telephony services on mobile phones and other wireless terminals. Handset manufacturers representing 90 percent of the world market across all technologies have committed to shipping WAP-enabled devices. Carriers representing more than 100 million subscribers worldwide have joined WAP Forum. This commitment will provide 10’s of millions of WAP browser-enabled products to consumers by the end of 2000. WAP allows carriers to strengthen their service offerings by providing subscribers with the information they want and need while on the move. Infrastructure vendors will deliver the supporting network equipment. Application developers and content providers delivering the value-added services are contributing to the WAP specification. |
| Enabling information access from handheld devices requires a deep understanding of both technical and market issues that are unique to the wireless environment. The WAP specification was developed by the industry’s best minds to address these issues. Wireless devices represent the ultimate constrained computing device with limited CPU, memory, and battery life, and a simple user interface. Wireless networks are constrained by low bandwidth, high latency, and unpredictable availability and stability. However, most important of all, wireless subscribers have a different set of essential desires and needs than desktop or even laptop Internet users. |