WAP - Modern Devices

A WAP device is a combination of hardware and software capable of running a WAP-compliant microbrowser, such as a WAP-enabled mobile phone or a PDA.

A PC can also be used as a WAP device, if you download a WAP phone emulator from one of the developer sites. The emulator allows you to use a virtual phone on your desktop. Some major suppliers such as Ericsson, Nokia, and Openwave, have developer sites where you can download software development kits (SDKs) containing WAP emulators.

A WAP phone can run any WAP application in the same way that a Web browser can run any HTML application. Once you have a WAP phone, you can access the Internet simply by entering URLs and following the links that appear.

These devices provide easy and secure access to the internet content and other services such as banking, leisure, and unified messaging. Furthermore, access is not restricted only to the Internet, but it can also deal with intranet information in the same way as internet content because both are based upon HTML.

Following is a selection of WAP phones that have been announced recently −