Wireless Application Protocol

>that more than 100 million WAP-compatible
devices will have been shipped worldwide by the
How long will it be before we’re connectingend of this year. The possibilities of tapping this
to the Internet via our mobile phones? We take anew market are already attracting plenty of
look at the exciting possibilities of Wirelessattention. Microsoft and Ericcson have formed a
Application Protocol (WAP).new company to market and deliver mobile
You can’t go far, even in the mainstreamWAP-based email solutions.
media, without coming across someoneWhat is WAP Like?
speculating about the future of the Internet.There are many difficulties with having Net access
Among all the excessive predictionson a mobile phone; in particular, the display size is
there’s one claim that never really getsmuch less than a PC, and the processor powering
much attention. Many more devices that we usethe device won’t even be close to Pentium
will be connected to the Internet. Andpower. As a result, the WAP world has
that’s a shame, because this is anreplacements for all the Net technologies and
important development, and it’s happeningprotocols we know and love. For example, pages
now, with the aid of Wireless Application Protocolare written in WML (Wireless Markup Language)
(WAP).rather than HTML, scripting is done in WMLScript
What is WAP for?as opposed to Javascript, and the pages get to
There’s a lot of information and resourcesyour device courtesy of WTP (Wireless
available on the Internet, and as companies takeTransaction Protocol) instead of HTTP.
the Web more seriously, so we can do moreIf the prospect of learning a whole new way of
every day. But if the only access is via your PC,working seems depressing, don’t worry,
then that’s hardly convenient. Dynamicit’s not as bad as it seems. While there are
information like news, sports, weather, and so on,many new concepts — in the Wireless
could be of interest no matter where you are.Markup Language, you don’t really create
And other sites are most useful whenpages, just more ‘decks’ consisting of
you’re out of the house; if you’reone or more cards — when you look more
out shopping wouldn’t it be convenient toclosely, it seems the WAP technologies
be able to access the Internet to quickly comparearen’t so very new at all. WMLScript
prices?doesn’t look that dissimilar to current
As so many people now carry some sort ofcoding languages.
wireless based device anyway, this is clearly aWhat Next?
possibility, but there’s a problem. TheAlready we’re beginning to see some of
devices have different capabilities, and run on lotsthe same issues that annoy people in the regular
of different wireless networks, so finding aInternet world appear with WAP —
standard way of connecting them to the Internetstandards compliance, for one. While the main
isn’t easy.WAP specification approaches 1.2, support among
The solution that ties everything together is thethe various phone companies varies; the siemens
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). It’sC25 supports WAP 1.0, while the Nokia 7110 and
designed to work on all kinds of digital wirelessmost Ericsson products handle WAP 1.1.
devices, on just about every wireless networkIf you’d like to get involved yourself, or
there is. It defines both the method offind out more there are many ways to get
communications, and the environment in whichstarted. Guidance on building sites in WML and
applications run, so it can be built on any operatingWMLScript can be found in developers’ kits
system (PalmOS, Windows CE, EPOC, JavaOS,or on the Internet. What you shouldn’t do
and so on).is ignore it, because WAP is soon becoming more
Not yet impressed? It’s been estimatedpopular than your PC.