Using WML with Phone.com Extensions to Optimize Wireless Services

Description

Phone.com Inc. 2000 -- 14 pages.Content and application developers use WML to extend the reach of their web-based services to WAP-compatible devices. WAP phones introduce new issues for web developers, including limited browser memory (deck cache and history stack), wireless network usage costs, and minimal screen capabilities. In a competitive marketplace, end users choose the services that are easiest to use, that compensate for the physical constraints of wireless networks and devices, and that provide the most immediate value (the user requires a minimum number of key presses to obtain value from the service).In practice, it can be extremely problematic, if not impossible, to develop a single code base using WML to serve all commercial WAP browsers. Developers must instead specialize the content presentation to take into account the unique behavior of each WAP browser and to fully leverage any extended features provided by that browser. Specializing applications for the target platform ensures the best possible user experience.