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To: Ruffian who wrote (29440)	5/7/1999 2:49:00 PM
From: quidditch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Thread: Someone earlier today had posted that MSFT agreement to become WAP member was negative for Q! Q! is a member. Report on MSFT membership that is of interest re. WK and its wireless internet protocol. Note last para. <Microsoft Set for Rocky WAP Forum Membership By Vanessa Clark 07 May 1999 < In what seems to be a significant coup for the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Microsoft Corp. finally joined the WAP Forum this week. However, apparent differences in strategy threaten to make the relationship a fairly tumultuous one. While Microsoft remains committed to delivering web content directly to mobile devices, the WAP Forum supports converting Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) into a stripped down format more suitable for mobile devices with limited memory and screen size. "We share the same vision as WAP," said Dilip Mistry, European Business Development Manager for Windows CE. However, it seems that Microsoft's solution to achieving a wirefree world remains inherently different to the WAP Forum's. Microsoft feels quite strongly about avoiding any translation process and especially the "WAP-tax" that carriers pay to license the WAP proxy server that delivers the information to the device. "The Microsoft browser goes directly to the content," says Mistry. A pathing engine in the browser strips out anything it can't support and renders the page in the micro-browser said Mistry. Formatting like tables is broken down into separate pages. A spokesman for Phone.com (formerly Unwired Planet), one of the founders of the WAP Forum, dismissed this solution saying that it wastes precious bandwidth by downloading everything and having the mobile device filter out the content it can't use. The WAP Forum is an alliance of over 90 companies aiming to set standards for getting Web content onto mobile devices like cellular phones and palm top computers. WAP's solution - amongst some considered a de facto standard already - centers on web pages being re-written in the so-called Wireless Markup Language which allows the pages to be accessed by a microbrowser. Microsoft delayed joining the forum because it was concerned the forum's proposals were not sufficiently Internet-standards driven. "We don't want islands of standards," said Mistry. Mistry said that Microsoft was assured that the WAP Forum is moving closer to Internet standards with the specifications for its latest microbrowser which are based more on Extensible Markup Language (XML) than the Wireless Markup Language (WML). Also, WAP Forum members are traditionally part of the mobile telephony clan, rather than palmtop computing devices. So it seems Microsoft will have its work cut out for it in the debate over whether phones will act like computers or computers will act like phones. Mistry said that Microsoft said that its WirelessKnowledge venture with Qualcomm will not be affected by its joining the WAP Forum - Qualcomm is already a member. <© EMAP Media 1999