Will WML be Superseded by HTML?

The argument for the possible replacement of WML by HTML is that as phone network data transmission speeds increase as a result of new technologies, the need for the 'primitive' WML language will diminish. It's certainly true that as network bandwidth increases and processors become more capable, the arguments for a compact scripting language such as WML go away. However, that's still in the future and WML fulfills a real need now. As time goes by, the numbers of different devices with different capabilities will increase - this is a good thing, as it means greater connectivity and can lead to wonderful things like voice recognition and wireless broadband. In this context, the argument of whether WML will be replaced by HTML becomes irrelevant.

 

Yes in some devices, HTML will be more appropriate, but in others WML, or voice, or something else, will be the browser of choice. Microsoft's Mobile Explorer, as implemented in the newly available Sony CMD-Z5 mobile, points the way towards a multi-format world by being the first dual-mode HTML and WML browser. MME also has the stated design path of future support for XML-based content. The point to take on board is that there is no single "best" solution for all mobile buyers.

 

For the time being, however, there isn't the network bandwidth, the device processor power, or the display capabilities to support HTML over wireless links to devices such as mobile phones.

 

It's likely, though, that even as data transmission speeds increase, processors become more powerful, and displays more capable, there will still be a demand for very simple communication devices. The point is that WTP and WML are optimized for their operating environments, have very wide industry support and are relatively cheap to implement in mobile devices. WAP's position seems assured, at least in the lower-end mobile phones, so WML will be the pre-eminent mobile markup language for at least the next few years. And all this time, the WAP Forum will be working to add new functionality that reflects the changes in the underlying technology, and develops capabilities that meet the special needs of mobile devices.

As time goes on, client devices will not just be restricted to PCs and mobile phones. There will be very many different devices using the Web for wide-area networking. Currently, this adds up to a headache for content providers who have to decide where to commit their scarce development resources and where to target their user base. Users too expect wide availability of web services. The WAP Forum, digital television industries and W3C recognize this, and are addressing the problem of differing client capabilities through convergence.

Convergence and Universal Accessibility

One of the weaknesses of WAP today - and of any other non-PC web access technology - is that generally, web content has to be specially authored for its target devices.

 

The next key focus for WAP is universal accessibility. Web content today is aimed at the de facto standard of a desktop PC with an HTML browser. WML and i-mode browsers on mobile phones are the first of new class of web clients, each with differing capabilities.

 

The goal of universal accessibility is to ensure access to applications and services, with proper rendering of the content regardless of client capabilities. Authors will be able to create content once, and then have it rendered as appropriate for display on different client devices.

 

The WAP Forum is working together with W3C to make this happen by standardizing with a new content markup language: XHTML.

XHTML

As the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) describes it, XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) is "a reformulation of HTML 4 as an application of the Extensible Markup Language (XML)".

 

XHTML is in fact the successor to HTML 4, which is the current standard markup language used for defining PC web content. In XHTML, all HTML 4 markup tags and attributes will continue to be supported, separated into different modules specific to different sectors of the industry. The advantages it brings are extensibility and portability.

 

Extensibility means that as new ideas for web communication and presentation emerge, they can be implemented without having to wait for the next major version of HTML (and browser support for it). New tags or attributes can be defined to express the new possibilities, and provided that some program at the receiving end can understand and act on them, new things may happen on your web page that never happened before. Specific sets of extensions for XHTML are planned for mathematical expressions, vector graphics, and multimedia applications.