Global Publishing Leader Leverages Emerging Technology to Provide Readers with Immediate Access to Timely News and Award-Winning Content
International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading IT media and information services company, today announced it is rapidly expanding the delivery of news and information to mobile devices through the use of wireless access protocol (WAP). Computerworld Online Denmark recently joined a growing number of IDG companies around the world that use WAP technology to deliver Web-based content to wireless devices - from mobile phones, to pagers and personal digital assistants. IDG publications in Denmark, Sweden and Hungry currently provide news and information through WAP technology.
"IDG is committed to delivering content to readers when, where and how they want to receive it," said Kelly Conlin, president and CEO of IDG. "Our global network of publications enables us to share best practices, rapidly accelerating the adoption of emerging technologies, such as WAP, across all our business units."
IDC forecasts by 2004 there will be approximately 1.3 billion cellular/PCS subscribers worldwide and nearly all of them will own WAP-capable devices.
In Denmark, Computerworld Online recently launched a free service that allows owners of WAP-enabled devices to read six of the latest headlines and a brief version of each story. To read a Computerworld Online news story, a user sets www.wap.idg.dk as the homepage on the WAP-enabled phone or device, the full text of the news stories can later be read online at www.computerworld.dk.
"Although there are currently more than 30 WAP services and portals in Denmark, the market is still very much in its infancy," said Lene Sorensen, manager, Computerworld Online Denmark. "We are taking advantage of this emerging technology to better serve Denmark's large `early-adopter' contingent, and lay the groundwork for adoption by our broader audience. There is no doubt that WAP will have a major impact on the production and delivery of content, creating new ways for our customers to reach their target audiences."
Last fall, IDG Sweden launched Personal Companion World, a magazine and companion online site (http://companion.idg.se) that delivers "everything you need to know about the mobile world," from product releases to practical and business use of mobile technologies, including WAP. IDG Hungary introduced WAP services on its Web site, www.idg.hu, in January. The service focuses on current events and IT news and automatically refreshes headlines to keep the content current.
In the U.S. market, publications like The Industry Standard and InfoWorld currently use AvantGo software to enable users of Palm Pilots or other content storage devices to download stories from their Web sites. With the proliferation of cell phones and pagers in the U.S., WAP will soon allow them to deliver to those platforms as well. Not only will WAP enable the integration of customized content and interactive ads, but it opens up the possibilities to provide added value to "mobile" readers whose are more often working from the road than from behind a desk.
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