These new specifications include the migration from WML to XHTML as the core markup language of WAP, as well as advanced user interfaces, animation, pop-up menus, color and increased multimedia functionality for a variety of wireless devices.

Consumer and business WAP applications showcased at the event include demonstrations of graphic applications for mobile chat products, a performance management tool that predicts scalability, and mapping applications for wireless devices. Bluetooth-enabled products and WAP-enabled remote control devices for information residing on PCs will also be featured.

WAP is already being utilized by tens of thousands of developers who are creating a new era in mobile commerce, remote enterprise access and a host of unique consumer applications, said Scott Goldman, CEO of the WAP Forum. These six WAP Forum meetings each year give members a common ground for companies all over the world to meet and build great products and applications for businesses and consumers.

WAP 2.0 will incorporate the migration from Wireless Markup Language (WML) to eXtensible Hyper Text Markup Language (XHTML), enabling developers to build applications one time for rendering on multiple devices. Both WML and XHTML are based on XML technology, the W3Cs recommendations for the next generation of Internet mark-up language. It will be 100 percent backwards compatible, allowing users to interact with the more than 10,000 applications from 95 countries already available in the WML format.

With more than 4.4 million WML pages already, according to Pinpoint.com, growth of WML is surpassing the original growth of HTML pages in the early 1990s. The rapid increase can be attributed to several factors, including growth in the number of subscribers, the wealth of innovative and useful applications and a heightening popularity of wireless devices.

Today, there are already eight million WAP users in every service genre worldwide who access Internet-based information anywhere, anytime from mobile devices, according to industry analysts International Data Corporation and Gartner Group.

About the WAP Forum
The WAP Forum is the industry association that is responsible for developing and fostering the growth of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)an open, global and non-proprietary standard that is device independent and allows mobile users to easily interact with the Internet-based information. The WAP Forum is comprised of more than 600 members, representing more than 99 percent of the handsets sold worldwide and more than 300 million global subscribers. Members include worldwide handset manufacturers, carriers, infrastructure providers, software developers and other wireless solution providers. For more information about the WAP Forum, including a current listing of its members, visit http://www.wapforum.org.

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Press Contacts:
Marja S. Murray
WAP Forum
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Deborah Johnson
Porter Novelli Convergence Group for WAP Forum
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