AvantGo Goes WAP, Announces a Flurry of Deals.

With an eye on a potentially massive new market, AvantGo Inc has extended its online content delivery service to wireless application protocol (WAP)-enabled phones. In a flurry of activity yesterday, the San Mateo, California-based company also announced a Microsoft Corp bundling deal, an extension of the service to the Palm VII, and the creation of AvantGo Europe as well as eight new content and partnership deals.

AvantGo will offer online content from the likes of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times to any user of a mobile phone with a WAP browser. The company has added all the WAP plumbing to its servers to enable phone users to plug in without using a separate client.

The AvantGo.com client will be bundled in the Microsoft Connectivity kit. The kit comes with a cable that allows users of CE-based devices to connect a handheld to a cell phone and use it to get online. Interestingly, the service for the Palm VII doesn't use Palm Computing's web clipping content provision service; AvantGo has chosen to use its own client on the wireless offering from the 3Com company. The software is also being bundled with Novatel's wireless modem.

To mark the company's launch in Europe, it has inked a

content deal with the Financial Times. Other new content deals are with Ticketmaster, CitySearch and W-Trade. AvantGo have also partnered with OpenSky - the wireless data service venture formed by 3Com Corp and Aether Technologies - which will offer email news and stock quotes. The first services are scheduled to be available to customers by the end of the year.

Stuart Read, VP of marketing at AvantGo, said that the company was planning to introduce Java scripting support for service this winter, after requests from enterprise customers. On the consumer side, the company is planning to introduce more commerce content. AvantGo considers commerce and trading services as the real moneymakers on its online service. Possibly because standard internet banner ads - another revenue stream - lose something in the translation to smaller screens. "In 2000, you'll see more ads and a lot more commerce," predicts Read.