Patent ID: 7647021

Claim:
A method for delivering an Application Service Provider (ASP) service to a wireless device in a personal area network (PAN), the method comprising: providing an ASP delivery system connected to a computer communications network over a physical communications link and connected to the PAN via a short-range radio frequency communications link, said ASP delivery system being configured to deliver components of ASP services over the short-range radio communications link to the wireless device in the PAN, said ASP delivery system also being configured to store some components of ASP services locally and to retrieve at least a portion of said components of said ASP services from ASPs in said computer communications network over said physical communications link when necessary, wherein said components of said ASP services comprise a plurality of different software programs from among which a user of the wireless device selects and interacts with via the short-range radio communications link; detecting a presence of the wireless device in the PAN by the ASP delivery system using service discovery protocols; establishing a short-range radio communications link with the wireless device in said PAN and verifying subscription of or offering subscription to the wireless device; determining whether the wireless device has associated with a default service if the wireless device is a valid subscriber device; prompting the user of the wireless device for pay-per-use payment if the wireless device is not a valid subscriber device; transmitting to said wireless device over the established short-range radio communications link a list of ASP services available in the ASP delivery system or retrievable from ASPs in the computer communications network; receiving from said wireless device requests for at least one of said ASP services selected from said list of ASP services; for each component of said selected ASP services, determining if said ASP delivery system can immediately deliver said component without requiring retrieval of said component from ASPs and immediately delivering said component to said wireless device if retrieval of said component is not required; and, if said ASP delivery system cannot deliver said component without requiring retrieval of said component from ASPs, retrieving said component for said at least one ASP service from one of said ASPs over said physical communications link.