Digital devices are moving from the domain of the tech-savvy to the hands, purses and pockets, homes, and cars of mainstream consumers and knowledge workers. From cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to gaming devices and wireless digital jukeboxes, these digital devices represent a key opportunity for hardware and software vendors. Although each device may provide access to information, the lack of high-fidelity connections among these devices limits the scenarios that the device and software manufacturers can bring to life.

To address the overall challenge of integrating systems and applications, the computing industry has converged on a set of standards-based protocols. Known as Web services, this collected set of protocols and standards provides a common method for programmatic interactions among applications, services and devices. Web services are revolutionizing how software interacts, without regard to how the applications were built or the platform on which they run. Bringing the benefits of Web service-based connectivity to the device space is a logical extension of the progress and promise that has been realized by the rest of the software industry.