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E-business Watch
Tracking the
online media to bring you the key e-business trends
February 21, 2000
Make way for
'Internet Everywhere'
Until now,
“going online” in North America has generally required access to
a computer or network that is hardwired to the world through phone
lines. This is now changing as new wireless devices begin to deliver
anywhere, anytime access to the Net.
The availability
of wireless Internet access will fundamentally change how we
interact with the Internet. It will make the Internet even
more central to our daily activities, opening the door to a wide
range of content and services designed specifically for the mobile
user. Applications underway or planned include: enhanced e-mail and
messaging; the ability to complete financial transactions over
wireless devices; news, sports and financial alerts, and even
traffic-monitoring services that tell us which street will get us to
work faster.
As was the case
during the early days of the Internet, this has spawned a
rush of activity from hardware manufacturers, infrastructure
suppliers, application developers, service providers and content
producers seeking to position themselves as the leaders in this new
frontier.
New
Web, New Devices
In this new world
of the “Internet everywhere,” the most visible change for the
consumer will be in the devices they use to access the Internet.
One device that is
receiving the most attention is the common mobile phone. Easy to
use, widely available and Internet-ready, digital phones are the
most popular tool for accessing the wireless Internet. In
Japan, where mobile phone use far exceeds North America, one-third
of Japanese Internet users already access the Net exclusively
over their mobile phones. IGI Consulting Group recently
predicted that by 2003, the number of people accessing the
Internet by mobile phone will exceed those using PCs.
Aiming to
capitalize on the popularity of Internet-enabled phones, Bell
Mobility recently launched Canada’s first Digital PCS
smart phone. The phone features an 11-line screen, e-mail and
limited Internet access. Among the early services that will be
featured include: access to Yahoo! Canada; online music sales
through HMV.com; GetThere.com’s wireless travel services, and a
range of enhanced services and promotions available to some
credit-card holders.
Also quickly
emerging are a new generation of interactive pagers. Leading the
charge is Research in Motion (RIM), with its interactive “BlackBerry”
pagers. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company’s pagers let users
send and receive e-mails and also provide limited access to their
desktop computers. While the portion of the population that
needs e-mail access 24-hours per day is small, these pagers have
been highly sought after by professionals in time-sensitive jobs,
such as financial professionals and technical support staff. RIM has
so far signed major distribution deals with Dell and Intel and has
sold its pagers to most major U.S. securities firms. Most
recently, it reached
a major deal to provide Salomon Smith Barney, the securities
unit of Citigroup, with 2,500 devices.
While early
attempts to bring wireless Internet access to portable computers
such as Palm
Pilots have had only limited success, new computing devices
designed specifically for access to the Internet may hold the key to
providing complete access to the wireless Internet. Among the
earliest of these is
a Web Pad that will give users untethered access to the Internet
while they roam freely in their home or offices. Created with
Transmeta’s revolutionary new Crusoe
microprocessor, the Web Pad – which is roughly the size of a
coffee-table book -- will have more power than most of today’s
home computers while consuming one-tenth of the energy. The pads are
expected to become available in mid-2000 and should retail for less
than $1000 U.S.
Although the
growth of mobile Internet devices is still in its earliest stages,
these tools foreshadow the future of computing and the Internet.
Speaking at the recent Symbian
Developer Conference , the CEO of Qualcomm predicted that
wireless devices will soon become so cheap that we will have them
embedded in our wristwatches or even sewn into our clothing.
The growing
popularity of wireless, Internet-enabled devices and
applications will undoubtedly continue to fuel the growth,
pervasiveness and usefulness of the Internet.
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