zdnet.co.uk
IT Week: WAP makes splash at Mobile Business Show
Fri, 29 Oct 1999 14:55:44 GMT
Rupert Goodwins and Eamonn Sullivan
The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) for mobile communications is being used in new products. At last week's Mobile Business Show a number of applications were shown, including email services, and mobile phones equipped with WAP browsers were demonstrated.
UK reseller Now Distribution announced that it will deliver email on WAP phones from a variety of sources, including IMAP4, POP3, Exchange and Lotus Notes. The firm will combine the WAPLite server from WAPLite.com with Infinite Interchange from Infinite Technologies. Sheffield-based Dialogue Communications announced a WAP version of its Envelos messaging system that connects directly to an Exchange server, providing the same class of services that Microsoft recently showed at Telecom 99. Microsoft said at the time that its own Windows CE-based microbrowser and HTML were the best solution to Exchange integration, because a WAP server would have to replicate the data in an Exchange mail database.
However, WAP uses a protocol that was written specifically to address the shortfalls for mobile communications in HTTP -- the protocol that normally carries HTML. Ericsson demonstrated prototypes of its two WAP phones for the first time in the UK, including the first smartphone based on Symbian's Epoc operating system.
The first phone to ship will be the R320, which looks like a traditional mobile phone and uses Ericsson's own mobile phone operating system. It is due early next year. The Epoc-based R380, which is scheduled to ship in the first half of next year, has a much larger screen that runs the length of the phone and offers a graphical interface. The R380 will also feature handwriting recognition. |
