As handheld devices offering email and Web access grow in popularity, wireless companies face a problem: How do they bring an estimated billion Web pages to wireless users? Web pages could, in principle, be rewritten in Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), but there are not enough qualified people to perform the task, observers say. The industry could wait for a new generation of high-speed handheld devices to appear, offering possibilities of greater device content -- but the time frame for delivery to market is uncertain, and there is no guarantee that the new devices would be able to handle the content.

Or, as Research In Motion (RIM), North America's largest data device manufacturer, has decided, wireless companies can unite behind JavaTM technology and bring wireless to the Web.

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