Tracking the Six Wireless Device Classes of the Internet

• By Mark Beaulieu
• Jan 11, 2002

From the author of

Wireless Internet Applications and Architecture: Building Professional Wireless Applications Worldwide

Every computer and telecom vendor offers a partial product line that supports select wireless networks and application types. As Internet developers try to serve the totality of wired and wireless devices, they need a model for all wireless devices that unifies them from a programmer's point of view.

To reign in the madness of the confusing landscape of wireless devices, it's helpful to look at six major wireless Internet device classes: web phones, handhelds, pagers, voice portals, communicating appliances, and the web PC. This article takes a close-up look at these devices and discusses what to expect from them and the emerging wireless devices. Modern server architecture is perhaps the best way to understand this device model, since XML servers deliver content through wireless networks for mobile applications.