Programmers cash in on wireless rage

Wireless technology is taking on the Gold Rush feel that the Web had in the late 1990s. Nearly every major company, it seems, is planning a wireless product or service, Web-enabled gadgets are staples of the evening news, and there are mutual funds that specialize in wireless vendors. The rush to be in on the Next Big Thing is swelling the demand for technologists who can help build the first successful wireless portal or the cellular phone that makes the wireless Web truly indispensable.

IT workers, especially programmers, are reportedly in hot demand. "There's just not a lot of people out there who have the experience," says Charles Moore, president of Active Wireless Executive Search Group Inc. Based in South Daytona, Fla., Active Wireless is one of a tiny group of headhunters that focus on the wireless industry. Moore's company also runs one of the first wireless-focused job boards, wirelessresumes.com.

Wild about wireless

As a new industry with standards finalized just in the past two years, wireless hasn't had time to train enough workers with specialized skills in the way, for example, that HTML, Java, and C++ know-how has been developed in the Internet industry. Besides making ample use of these existing Web technologies, wireless brings with it a new set of languages and standards, most importantly the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and HTML variants such as the Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML) and the newer Wireless Markup Language (WML).

Hardware platforms and operating systems proliferate, led by the PalmOS from Palm Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.), PocketPC from Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, Wash.) and EPOC from Symbian (London, England). And like the early Web, wireless has several competing browsers, including the UP.Browser from Openwave Systems Inc. (Redwood City, Calif.; formerly Phone.com and Unwired Planet). Programmers may struggle to write code that fits in the small memory capacities of the handheld platforms, though the systems themselves are relatively uncomplicated and easy to learn, according to observers.

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