You've got email, so you quickly scroll through the From and Subject lines of the last 10 messages. Aha, there's a note from the boss: better read it and tap in a quick reply. Nothing unusual about that, you might think, except you can do it sitting on a bus with a mobile phone. . . .
The system has limitations: phones have such small LCD screens I found I could only get three or four words on a line. With speeds of 9.6 kbits/second, email could take ages to download (PC modems are almost five times faster) and there's no way to read attachments. It also takes much longer to tap in replies with a phone's numeric keypad. Still, at least you can track and read important messages without carrying a computer.
The real benefit of mail-enabled mobiles like the Alcatel OneTouch and Nokia 7110 I tried is that they look identical to their less-capable cousins: there's nothing extra to carry.
The technology bringing email to mobiles is WAP, the Wireless Application Protocol. The WAP standard was developed by the three biggest mobile phone suppliers - Ericsson, Nokia, and Motorola - with a small Silicon Valley company, Unwired Planet, which recently changed its name to Phone.com. A WAP-based service is already operating in France, where Alcatel's OneTouch phone is now on sale. UK services - under test - may be launched in September.
WAP phones are expected to create a huge new market and stimulate the growth of services designed for their small screens. Nokia has already announced that the CNN (Cable News Network) TV channel will offer a news service, CNN Mobile, to 7110 users, while Orange has announced a similar deal with ITN's new media division. Leading websites are expected to launch WAP-compatible "pocket" or "wireless" versions like the Microsoft Network's MSN Mobile.
Peramon, a UK-based start up, is targeting this market with its Lexicos client/server software, announced this week at the Networks Telecom 99 exhibition in Birmingham. Lexicos client software can read internet email on a mobile phone, handheld electronic organiser or personal computer; Lexicos server software stores and indexes everything so that you can easily find things again. The server software can be hosted by a mobile phone service provider such as Orange - in which case your mail is stored online - or on a corporate Unix server, or an ordinary PC or notebook running Microsoft Windows.
Lexicos was developed by programmers working for Digital Equipment Corporation on software for its AltaVista search engine. When Compaq took over Digital last year, they bought out the technology and set up their own company, Peramon. They are now offering a trial version online at www.peramon.com
