A number of wireless powerhouses have announced that they are backing XHTML (Extensible HTML) as the foundation for future mobile services and products.
XHTML is a meld of HTML and XML, built to operate with HTML browsers and to use XML’s device-independent capabilities.
The companies, including Nokia Corp., L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co., Motorola Inc., and Siemens AG, are pushing XHTML as the language for creating all content regardless of whether it is for the fixed Internet or the mobile phone world, according to a company statement from Espoo, Finland-based Nokia.
Nokia, for instance, demonstrated an XHTML Web browser on a mobile phone at the CTIA and CeBit trade shows.
A report issued by Redwood City, Calif.-based Zona Research Inc. stated that XHTML will help content providers distribute their services to multiple platforms, thereby increasing the quality and acceptance of wireless access.
Zona cautioned, however, that Web content still needs to be written in XHTML for such devices to read it.
The W3C (Worldwide Web Consortium) in Needham, Mass. said that XHTML functions as a bridge between HTML and XML’s benefits.
On Thursday, the W3C published the first working draft of the “Modularization of XHTML in XML Schema.”
The specification is a subset of XHTML and extends XHTML’s reach onto emerging platforms such as mobile devices, television, and appliances.