WML, etc. -- the small screen, handheld, wireless visitor

clients are already asking.....

[fashezee]

I have some clients asking me about having their site viewable from cell
phones, PDAs, Palm Pilots etc... What's the scope about wireless internet and
how concerned should I be?

[bill]

If you were looking at the Japanese market I would tell you that web access via mobile devices, primarily phones, is common and widespread. The predominant trend here seems to be cHTML for page coding and Java applets for mini games and applications. That's a very general look at it.

Wml is a smaller part of this market as it's perceived as difficult to develop. You're limiting your audience base to a certain extent with wml. I guess it all depends on the market and carriers you are targeting. I would just warn you against thinking that wml means it will work on any mobile device.

[pendanticist]

Some months ago, after seeing these appliances showing up in my log files I explored the posibilities of designing for such units. I have since abandonded the idea until I see how this market plays out.

Here are some resources I've accumulated:

http*//webcab.de/wapua.htm

[w3schools.com...]

And, of course:

wap.google.com

As I understand WAP and others, it may very well be something certain webmasters may wish to consider for the future.

Pendanticist.

[tedster]

Check out the Opera 7 beta. Under the View menu there's a "small screen" option that simulates what many third generation wireless phones will display.

Given the fact that Opera is the embedded browser for many of the devices, this feature makes sense in their full monitor browser - and it will give you some good clues about development for the future.

[Eric_Jarvis]

I'd ignore the intermediary technologies...the future is mobile devices accessing the same web pages as everything else rather than an entirely separate web for them...a site that is generally accessible is usually fairly usable with a small screen device even without having to do many things specifically for them

about the only change I've made so far is to pay attention to how the elements of the page "stack" when width is dramatically reduced

for any information or sales site it's going to be a MAJOR part of the market in the near future

[bill]

Eric_Jarvis that was well said...I agree that it's really not necessary to target these intermediary technologies for the mobile web if you are looking at cross platform accessibility. Tools like wap.google.com are wml sites that will let users surf normal web pages showing information in the proper format for these devices. So, instead of struggling with site design in wml you can focus on well-constructed standards-compliant pages and point users toward tools like Google's to do the translation for you.