Technology is changing everyday. There is always something which makes us say wow or just umm "wont last". Well WAP is here to stay so get ready to say hello to the technology which will change the way most of us will communicate in the future.

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) is a technology which has been implemented into mobile phones to allow us to view content via WAP enabled websites. Its that simple but it can be a costly method for us to view websites. Thankfully, although the technology is new, it is advancing quickly.

So what can you do with WAP? Well not much really other than read content from websites that allow you to view their WAP content. Most websites are not yet WAP enabled so the sites to visit are limited, however more and more are going live each day. Of course you can read emails as long as your service provider allows you to do so. For this to all happen you need a WAP capable phone. The new Nokia 7110 allows you to read WAP content.

WAP is not just excellent for viewing the latest news headlines from ITN or the TV listings from the BBC. It can be used in a corporate working environment. With a WAP server installed in your business, this enables you to communicate directly with your employee's straight to their pager of mobile phone. Something which will be more popular later.

So should you rewrite your website for WAP? Umm, probably not worth it at the moment. WAP is very much like HTML accept it is based around a new markup language called WML (Wireless Markup Language), although it is like HTML, it's very much like XML however it is quite simple to implement. There are some important points to remember of course. Mobile Phones are not exactly like laptops and with a limited size screen, it does put you in a silly position on what you actually display on the screen. So text size is limited, what about graphics? Its a sore subject for WAP at this moment because WAP enabled phones download at only 9600bps, it's not like your 56,000bps modem you probably have in your machine at the moment.

So in summary, WAP is very much a new technology which has only really taken off since late last year. More and more mobile phone companies are building WAP enabled phones so the boom time is still to come.

Very soon, we will be running some tutorials on building a WAP website from scratch. Look out for it!

Resources:

http://www.wapinsight.com
http://www.wap-uk.com
http://www.waphq.com
http://www.wapjaq.com