Opera Software has announced that future versions of its Web browser will support the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) 2.0 standard. The company hopes to offer the product as a solution for mobile Internet original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and will provide desktop users with “unique continued access” for their favorite WAP sites. Opera Software makes Web browsers for Mac OS and other platforms.
WAP provides users of mobile wireless devices with access to online info and services. The new standard, WAP 2.0, provides a richer experience than the previous standard did, according to Opera Software. The company also noted that Opera is the only desktop browser that supports WML, or Wireless Markup Language, which is used for WAP.
Opera Software CTO Hakon W. Lie said that WAP 2.0 is moving closer to the Web than previous versions. “By introducing XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) into WAP, wireless users will have access to rich Web-based content, which Opera has long experience handling,” said Lie.