In an announcement Tuesday, the nonprofit organization said its new WMM Power Save specifications are an extension of its existing Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) Program and are meant to provide Wi-Fi product developers with ways of boosting battery life in cell phones, handheld computers and other wireless consumer electronics devices.

Frank Hanzlik, managing director of the 6-year-old Austin, Texas-based Wi-Fi Alliance, said the new specifications will help application developers use the software code that operates Wi-Fi devices to save on power usage. In particular, the specs provide details about how software and products can be better integrated to operate only when needed, conserving power between user sessions.

"It's all about [the devices] sleeping at the right time," Hanzlik said.

The first products certified under the new WMM Power Save specifications are being announced Tuesday. They include several components used in wireless products. Wi-Fi telephones and other Wi-Fi-enabled devices featuring the new components are expected to hit the market within the next few months, Hanzlik said.

The first products using WMM Power Save are the AR5002AP-2X access point from Atheros Communications Inc., the AirForce BCM94704AGR dual-band 802.11a/g access point and the AirForce BCM94309CB dual-band 802.11a/g PC card from Broadcom Corp., Cisco Systems Inc.'s AIR-AP1231G-A-K9 and AIR-RM21A-A-K9 access points, Conexant Systems Inc.'s 802.11a/g Prism WorldRadio chips sets, Marvell Semiconductor Inc.'s 802.11a/b/g WLAN router, Ralink Technology Corp.'s 802.11a/g Mini PCI and the Mini PCI 802.11a/b/g WLAN Client from Winbond Technology Corp.