WAP in the Competitive Environment

WAP in the Competitive Environment Competition for WAP protocols could come from a number of sources: •  subscriber identity module (SIM) toolkit—The use of SIMs or smart cards in wireless devices is already widespread and used in some of the service sectors. •  Windows CE—This is a multitasking, multithreaded operating system from Microsoft designed for including or embedding mobile and other space-constrained devices. •  JavaPhone™—Sun Microsystems is developing PersonalJava™ and a JavaPhone™ API, which is embedded in a Java™ virtual machine on the handset. NEPs will be able to build cellular phones that can download extra features and functions over the Internet; thus, customers will no longer be required to buy a new phone to take advantage of improved features.

The advantages that WAP can offer over these other  methods are the following:

•  open standard, vendor independent

•  network-standard independent

•  transport mechanism–optimised for wireless data bearers

•  application downloaded from the server, enabling fast service creation

and introduction, as opposed to embedded software