Patent ID: 6947973

Claim:
A content supply apparatus, interposable between a portable terminal and a content server, for obtaining content demanded by the portable terminal and sending the obtained content to the portable terminal, said content supply apparatus comprising: a content holding section for holding content obtained from the content server; a divided content supply section for obtaining the demanded content from said content holding section if the demanded content exists in said content holding section, and obtaining the demanded content from the content server if the demanded content does not exist in said content holding section, and for transmitting the obtained content to the portable terminal in divided content units of a maximum information amount that can be displayed by the portable terminal; and a prefetcher section for prefetching other contents, referred from the transmitted divided content units, from the content server, and storing the prefetched content in said content holding section, wherein said content holding section includes a transmission memory section for holding contents supplied to the portable terminal, a prefetch memory section for holding prefetched content, and a cache memory section for holding content the portable terminal had obtained previously.