Currently, the number of mobile phone users in the world is exploding.
Globally, mobile phone users outnumber desktop PCs. Worldwide, there
are about 380 million mobile phone users, compared to 200 million PC.
By 2003, mobile phone users are expected to reach at least one billion,
or one out of every six people on the planet. Mobile phone users have
a huge user base, and mobile telephony already has a gigantic platform
for communication -- and this platform is growing every day. Now, imagine
the emergence of a new technology -- one that enables all these mobile
phone users to access the Internet. A mobile internet. With a thriving
mobile internet, m-commerce would not be far behind. The mobile internet
exists today. It is made possible by a new technology that links wireless
devices to the Internet. This technology is WAP.
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WAP
stands for the Wireless Application Protocol. Essentially, WAP
is the technology that makes it possible to link wireless devices (such
as mobile phones) to the Internet by translating internet information
so it can be displayed on the display screen of a mobile telephone or
other portable device. How exactly do mobile phones access the Internet?
Think about how the Internet currently works. In layman's terms, the Internet
utilizes two types of computers -- servers and clients. Servers are the
computers that host the pages that we view. The clients are our PCs, or
the computers that we view these pages from. WAP technology works much
in the same way. The difference is that, instead of accessing the Internet
from our PCs, we are using mobile phones. The mobile phones become our
clients. Servers are still hosting the pages that we view. There's a trick
to all this, though. In order to connect mobile networks to the Internet,
a WAP Gateway must exist. In addition, the mobile phone we are using as
our client must be WAP-enabled, and the website one is viewing from the
Internet must be in a WAP-format.
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A
WAP Gateway is an intermediary between the Internet and the mobile network.
It converts our "WAP' request into a "Web' request when we send information
from a mobile phone to the Internet. On the flip side, a WAP Gateway also
converts a "Web' to a "WAP' request when sending information from the
Internet back to a mobile phone. What do you mean the mobile phone must
be WAP-enabled? Mobile phones that are "WAP-enabled' means that only mobile
phones that have been built with WAP technology built into them will be
able to access the Internet. Many mobile phone manufactures such as Ericcson,
Motorola, and Nokia are already offering WAP-enabled phones. These WAP-enabled
mobile phones do not vary significantly from conventional mobiles. The
most notable physical difference is a larger screen that allows for easier
use of the internet. What do you mean the web site must be in a WAP format?
Web pages today are often written in HTML (hypertext markup language)
which is rather too complex for mobile phones with their slower operating
speeds. Mobile phones will need to access web pages that are written in
WML (wireless markup language). WML greatly simplifies download times
and presentation. Thus, when we hear talk of websites being in a WAP-format
this means that the existing websites' original language of HTML must
be converted to WML.
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