The letters WAP stand for Wireless Application Protocol. WAP is a way of acccessing the internet using a mobile device, particularly a mobile phone. The Internet pages are much smaller and briefer than they are on a computer, because the phone screens are so much smaller.
In the mid 1990s, several competing technologies were being worked on and there was concern about a lack of a common direction. Various organisations were started up to do something about this. One such organisation was the WAP Forum, founded in 1997 to unite developers and encourage a common set of protocols and technologies.
WAP initially suffered heavy criticism for its design and technological limitations. It was, however, very successful in Japan and advanced services were also developed in Korea. Between June 03 and June 04 a 40% increase in the overall number of WAP pages being viewed was recorded.
Picture messaging (MMS) is an example of WAP used in conjunction with SMS technology.
The picture below shows part of a WAP web page on a mobile phone.
