Lately, you may have heard some of your business buddies using hi-tech buzzwords such as “wireless,” or “m-commerce.” The “next big thing” they may have called it, “the wave of the future.” How many times have you heard that one before? Although there may be some truth to those optimistic remarks, wireless still has a way to go. Here’s a quick summary about where we are right now with this new technology and where it’s headed.
Like the Web, wireless has its own special, agreed-upon standard of communicating. You’ve probably used or read the expression IP (as in IP address) — that’s the Internet protocol. Http is the hypertext transfer protocol. The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a standard for having a server talk to wireless devices. The wireless devices expect the data to appear in a certain format. The WAP (visit www.wap.org for more information, including the protocol) specifies two different languages that the wireless data provider can send to the wireless devices (via the WAP). Those are: hdml and wml. Hdml is the standard in the United States; wml is the standard overseas. The analogy here is that http is the protocol and html is the language for all things Web.