|
|
          |
WAP
Up till now, when you wanted to get online, you normally did it at a PC. But all that's about to change. The world wide web is undergoing its next big paradigm shift - the web is going mobile. People want information here and now - wherever, and whenever they need it, and that desire is transforming the cellular phone. Cel-phones have already become ubiquitous in terms of voice communication, so why not use them for more?
It makes sense that we are witnessing a convergence. And what's driving it is a shift from storing and owning data, to distributing and consuming it. So what does it all mean?
We are talking about a completely new media, the most personal, relevant and individual mass media ever, that combines the variety and power of Internet with the freedom and convenience of a mobile phone. It means you could use your cell phone to check for new e-mail, read the news, or get the latest cricket score. You could transfer funds between bank accounts, book tickets to the movies, sell some shares from your stock portfolio, or make a dinner reservation. To get that kind of information on your cell phone, you'd need a whole new kind of programming language, you'd need bigger bandwidth, and you'd need a totally new kind of handset. So is this smoke an mirrors? Or is it real? Gavin Penkin from Nokia explains,"We are seeing a convergence in technology and in voice and data, and as people want more and more of that Internet information in the mobile environment. The market is forcing a high-data rate. People are used to the high-data rate on the fixed line and now they want the high data-rate in the mobile environment. Handsets are going to go down two different paths. We are going to go down the one-handed path, with the phone that we use with one hand, and then we are going to go down the two-handed path with phones, typically communicators and palm-tops that we use with two hands. In the one-handed device, we will have nice big screens, means for navigating with a Navi-roller, so we can actually navigate through the cel-phone screens. We will see predictive-text input, which makes writing text on a cel-phone a lot easier, because the phone will predict the word that I want, so I press each key only once and not two, three or four times. In the two-handed device, we will have a keypad, a larger screen , typically able to input data twice as fast". So much for the handset. But that still hasn't answered the question about HOW all those services get onto the itty bitty cel-phone screen
Gavin continues," The Internet has got all the content, and when we want information, the information sits on computers and typically it sits on the Internet or an Intranet. So when we are out of the office, we also want access to this information. Now, we cannot take information that sits in a HTML format that we would normally read with a normal browser and try to put it onto the cell phone, so we need a different type of language for mobile devices. That mobile language is now called WML or Wireless Market Language and it has been developed specifically and only for mobile devices, so the phones will have a new browser on them, and the browser will read WML.. This is part of WAP or Wireless Application Protocol which is a mechanism to take information and services to the mobile-user". Never before have businesses had it so good. Imagine the ability to provide value added services, that will connect with people's lives, wherever they happen to be at the time. Never before has technology had the potential to so profoundly transform society, because now, individuals will build their lifestyles by selecting services that correspond with their everyday life, at the time they need them. Mobile devices will become the only fixed connection to the consumer. Businesses will literally be in the pockets of their customers. The LAN, or local area network, is about to become the PAN, or personal area network - a wireless network around your body, that connects your phone, your earpiece, your palm-top and your laptop, silently and efficiently, without you even being aware of what it's doing. It's done in conjunction with other new developments called Bluetooth and Symbian. Gavin continues," In the market today, we have a lot of useful devices. Each of these devises on their own are useful, but the moment we try to connect them to other devices, you have a problem. We have different infra-red protocols, we have different communications, different conversions, different cables and the moment you have two or three devices and you want them to talk to each other, you have a whole bag of cables and software programmes and connection programmes and it actually becomes a nightmare. Bluetooth is a short range communication, typically up to about ten metres where all these devices within a ten metre range can all communicate with each other. Communication can occur with multiple devices simultaneously. My phone can synchronise with my personal computer automatically; I can send a picture from my digital camera through my phone without having to connect them up; I can read my E-mail off my Lap-top, while my Lap-top is under the table in my bag, so it allows fast data in a short range environment. Symbian is the operating system for the Palm-top devices and Bluetooth and Symbian are working together so we can have a stable language so that we can add all the functionality on top of that language". Contacts
|
As far as our telecommunications infrastructure goes, data traffic has already overtaken voice traffic, and it goes ten times faster. Internet traffic is now doubling every ten days, and practically every fixed Internet user also uses mobile communication.
It means the changing of the old hear-phone to a new view-phone.
Granted, the Internet is revolutionising business - but you can't very well view an entire web page on one square inch of screen. The answer is quite literally take the world wide web and turn it on its head
