What is WAP?
WAP or Wireless Application Protocol is the open standard for enabling web content to mobile phones and other wireless devices. WAP is the platform for the new generation of information through phones. It is really nothing but a set of rules derived by Nokia and first developed for use in their mobile phones.

Features Of WAP
To make use of a WAP service, the user must have a mobile device that is equipped for WAP. Such a phone is equipped with a WAP micro browser, which fulfills navigation and presentation functions just like Internet browsers on a PC. The navigation function enables the user to request information by entering an Internet address. The browser receives information from the Internet address and presents this to the mobile user. In addition, the browser is equipped with functionality that makes integration of telephone services possible.

The wireless services provided by WAP are independent of the underlying digital wireless network technology. WAP enables users of mobile phones to have access to information and transactional services.
The user of a WAP-enabled mobile phone can get connected to the Internet instantly and can access any Internet service immediately. S/he can seek and get stock market quotes, Internet searches, banking information, flight timings, current news and much more.
In practice, there are certain limitations to using a mobile phone to access data, as compared to a computer, for example: screen size and lack of keyboard input. But such usage is inevitably going to increase in future. The reason is, a computer confines you to a physical location, whereas with a mobile phone you can reach the information quickly from wherever you are.
Just as there are various suppliers of Internet browsers, there are also several suppliers of WAP browsers. At present, the biggest browser suppliers are Openwave, Nokia, and Ericsson. Nokia and Ericsson developed the browser mainly for their own equipment. Open wave supplies licenses to Motorola, Alcatel, and Mitsubishi, among others. Microsoft also supplies a WAP browser, Microsoft Mobile Explorer, that issued in Sony handsets, among others. Each type of browser presents the information in its own way, depending on the screen size of the apparatus concerned, but not every type of browser supports the same set of facilities. Most suppliers offer a toolkit enabling information suppliers to produce services and then to see how the service will appear on equipment using the browser concerned. Unfortunately, additional testing on the specific equipment concerned is often also required, because the toolkit may not work in exactly the same way as the browser on the cellular phone. The large diversity between browsers can mean that, just as on the Internet, an information supplier must present an application in a number of different ways.

For further information refer to www.wapforum.org