XML Can Be Used to Store Data.
With XML, plain text files can be used to store data. XML can also be used to store data in files or in databases. Applications can be written to store and retrieve information from the store, and generic applications can be used to display the data.
XML Can Make Your Data More Useful.
Since XML is independent of hardware, software, and application, you can make your data available to other than only standard HTML browsers. Other clients and applications can access your XML files as data sources, like they are accessing databases. Your data can be made available to all kinds of “reading machines” (agents), and it is easier to make your data available for blind people, or people with other disabilities.
XML Can Be Used to Create New Languages
XML is the mother of WAP and WML. The Wireless Markup Language (WML), used to markup Internet applications for handheld devices like mobile phones, is written in XML.
If Developers Have Sense
If they do have sense, all future applications will exchange their data in XML. The future might give us word processors, spreadsheet applications, and databases that can read each other's data in a pure text format, without any conversion utilities in between.