WAP Flexes Muscle
Our desire to remain connected with each other, to information
sources, to developments at work, seems to grow with the unveiling of each
new data option. The estimated number of Web-enabled phones now exceeds
50 million. But smoothly blending the two underlying technologies, the
Internet and handheld devices, presents a formidable challenge.
That's where Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) comes
in. WAP is the de-facto world standard for the presentation and delivery
of wireless information and telephony services on mobile phones and other
wireless devices. The protocol makes it possible to communicate data reliably
and efficiently over wireless WANs.
WAP was started in 1997 by an industry association called
the WAP Forum, which consisted of phone manufacturers Nokia, Motorola,
Ericsson and a U.S. software company, Phone.com - then known as Unwired
Planet. The companies had begun to develop standards independent of each
other, but soon realized a common standard was needed to transfer Internet
data to a vast array of mobile devices – many with different display
sizes and capabilities.
The design philosophy behind WAP, according to a Phone.com
representative is "to utilize as few resources as possible on the
handheld device, and compensate for the constraints of the device by enriching
the functionality of the network."
In practice, this translates into placing a fairly simple
minibrowser on the phone or other device. When the device is turned on,
the minibrowser sends out a radio signal searching for a response from
a service provider so it can set up a connection. When you select a Web
site, a request is sent from the browser to a gateway server that uses
WAP. The server retrieves the information from the Web site and forwards
it along to your device.
So, why do Web sites look so different on a cell phone? Web
site pages simply won't fit on a wireless device's display.
To compensate, wireless Internet content is written in a different language – WML
- than the language used for the content we're used to seeing on
a computer (HTTP). WML renders content in special text-only or low-graphics
versions that are adapted for reduced space and performance. The gateway
servers translate these different versions back and forth before they send
the data to your phone.
It's challenges like this that rankle WAP's critics.
They point out that the design trend toward miniaturization directly conflicts
with the display capability of small devices. Small display size, together
with painfully slow data transfer rates when compared to modems or DSL
connections, largely explain why Web site content is limited to text or
very limited graphics.
Add to this the legibility problems of reading content on
tiny screens, and clumsy navigation of sites that require you to hit or
scroll keys you can hardly see, and it's clear there's still
a lot of work to do.
WAP is intended to deliver a mobile equivalent of the Internet
on wireless devices. Many argue that the results so far have been disappointing.
Nevertheless, the incentive for innovation is strong; in fact, some analysts
believe that within three years more people will access the Internet from
mobile phones than from office or home computers. |
