You may not be able to actually get hold of it just yet, and there may not be any actual applications, but technology moves so fast these days that WAP has already become a success (claims of "fastest-ever consumer uptake" haven't appeared just yet though). According to IDC, the mobile data market for Western Europe is on the brink of a massive explosion (it's a miracle we aren't all suffering from shell shock considering the number of explosions we've faced in the last few years alone). WAP is to be the main driver for this mobile data juggernaut as it speeds down the information superhighway before stopping at a travel tavern for a cup of coffee and some soggy sandwiches. Apparently, the "youth market" will spark off interest and business users will get all sweaty and excited at the end of the year with the launch of high-speed data services. The report pointed out that WAP has been criticised as an interim technology, but makes the point that the Pentium II and Windows 95 were also interims. Text messaging is on to a winner as well, but will be surpassed by more efficient services in a few years. Mobile commerce will be a niche market for a few more years, but will be "potentially huge" (a worth-in-2004 figure for you: $37 billion). Two sets of other good figures: percentage of people in Western Europe using SMS messaging and WAP by next year - 21.1 per cent and 4.6 per cent, respectively; by 2004, these are 36.2 and 13.1 per cent respectively. So now you know. Related Stories Wap is easy - but gadget geeks only need apply Wap really is useful