The most popular, and perhaps the most important, Internet access technologies for wireless devices are those for cell phones and PDAs. In order to take advantage of Internet access on these devices, which have very low bandwidth Internet connections, small screens, limited local storage, and miniscule CPUs, several specialized technologies have emerged. These technologies allow wireless devices to access specially formatted Web pages. For Palm Pilots, Palm Inc.'s Web Clippings is the most common way to access Web sites. For Research in Motion Ltd.'s RIM 957 BlackBerry and 950 Interactive Pagers, GoAmerica's Go.
Web service is one of the services offered.
Besides these access technologies, which mimic the way Web browsers work over the Internet on a PC, there are several other wireless hardware and network combinations. For these other platforms, developers can create custom applications for Internet access and deploy those custom applications on wireless devices. Accessing company and financial data via a cell phone or other wireless device is attractive but scary. Wireless devices pose a new set of security requirements, and no IT manager wants to be the one responsible when an employee's cell phone, lost at an airport, compromises a company database. Companies considering the deployment of applications to reach any wireless device need to be aware of the unique security requirements of wireless computing infrastructure.