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To: FinnTwin who wrote (21383)	7/2/1999 1:24:00 PM
From: allen v.w.	Respond to of 40688

I'm going to send this to Glen, Allan, and David so they can check it out for the future. --------------------------------------------------------------------- WAP! You've Got Wireless New version of Wireless Access Protocol to be featured in next-generation devices. by James Niccolai, IDG News Service July 1, 1999, 9:52 a.m. PT SAN FRANCISCO -- Some of the world's largest telecommunications firms and phone handset makers gathered here this week to promote a technology that allows Internet content to be tailored for display on mobile telephones, pagers, and other wireless devices. Called the Wireless Application Protocol, the technology provides a common platform for developing Web content for access by devices with smaller screens, lower connection speeds, and less memory than traditional computers. The market for WAP-enabled devices is expected to mushroom after the first products become commercially available later this year, says market research firm Strategy Analytics. The firm predicts that as many as 525 million WAP-enabled devices will ship in the U.S. and Western Europe by 2003. Members of an industry association called the WAP Forum this week announced an updated version of the protocol, called WAP version 1.1. The new protocol provides a memory-caching feature that will help compensate for lower connection speeds, plus easier testing of interoperability. The first mobile phones supporting the new protocol are expected to ship in Europe before the end of this year and in the U.S. by early next year, officials from Nokia and Ericsson said on Wednesday. Don't Surf, Select "Having a handset that's WAP enabled is going to get you information while you're on the move," says Alina Sargiss, a market research analyst with Dataquest. "It's not designed for Web surfing, but for pulling information off the Internet." WAP-enabled devices won't just be aimed at consumers. The technology is suitable for use in an intranet environment, allowing mobile workers to access information from corporate Web sites when they are on the road. "You will see commercial deployment of WAP-enabled products coming out in rapid succession in the third and fourth quarters," predicts Chuck Parrish, vice chair of the WAP Forum. WAP-Enabled Wireless Ericsson showed a handheld computer that it claims will be the first commercially available product to support the new protocol. Called the MC218, the device has a small keyboard set in a clamshell design and allows users to send and receive e-mail and view content on the Web. The device will launch in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and possibly other European countries in about two weeks, says Daniel Coole, a senior technical director with Ericsson. The device will be released in the United States early next year and will be priced at less than $700, Coole says. Eventually, handset vendors expect to offer WAP-enabled telephones at the same price as regular mobile telephones, says Lauri Hirvonen, senior manager of customer services with Nokia's Wireless Data group. Writing WML For WAP to really take off, content providers will first have to be persuaded to rewrite their Web sites in a format called Wireless Markup Language, a programming language related to Extensible Markup Language (XML). Officials here say the momentum behind WAP is sufficient to drive the transition. The idea is that companies will still offer standard HTML Web pages for PC users, with a subset of that content in WML for mobile access, Ericsson's Coole says. The growth of WAP also depends on manufacturers, content providers, and telecommunications providers working together to ensure interoperability between their products.