.KEYWORD internetworld
.FLYINGHEAD TRADESHOW REPORT
.TITLE Internet World Wireless 2001 in review
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY Associate Technical Editor Theo Durst was on the floor at this year’s Internet World Wireless 2001 show in New York City and has turned in a report that demonstrates the maturation of the wireless industry as developers have moved beyond the novelty factor and started producing applications that provide real solutions to real problems.
.AUTHOR Theodore Durst
Although, I’ve been involved with ZATZ since the early, "let’s publish a cool magazine about the Palm OS" stage, I’m usually far more active behind the scenes. Recently, an opportunity to cover the Internet World Wireless 2001 show in New York City presented itself. Since I’ve been pushing for more coverage of emerging technology markets, I got to play cub reporter for a day.
.CALLOUT Here’s the scoop, ‘Wireless is Cool!’
Here’s the scoop, "Wireless is Cool!" As my tour through the exhibit hall showed, developers are now beyond the gee-wiz novelty and are focusing on applications, which might just solve business problems, turn a profit, and keep the venture capitalists happy. So rather than run down the list of who was there and who wore an ugly tie, I’ll play futurist for a while and talk about what caught my attention.
.H1 Wireless is growing up!
At the moment, it’s all a "vision thing." The Palm OS is still the most prevalent platform for mobile computing. However, there are strong challengers such as Microsoft’s Windows CE platform. WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) devices were a heavy presence. However, there was more of an emphasis on mobile content and how to distribute it to users of existing mobile devices. That’s just it, while there are tons of portable devices in circulation, there’s no standard platform for wireless content just yet. So, the problem everyone is facing and most exhibitors professed to solve was the translation of HTML content to the various mobile device platforms.
.H2 Brience
I spoke for a while with the folks at Brience (at http://www.brience.com), an enterprise software provider focusing on this problem with an interesting pitch. They provide software which not only translates content based on the mobile device platform, but also does some neat things like prioritize requests based on network load and device platform. Since they sell software rather than operate an ASP (Application Service Provider), they’re hoping to be seen as a better fit for enterprise customers who are concerned about their data traveling through a third party’s service. Currently, Ingram Micro (at http://www.ingrammicro.com) and BarPoint (at http://www.barpoint.com) are two of the companies using Brience to extend their enterprises to wireless platforms.
.H2 Roundpoint
UK-based Roundpoint (at http://www.roundpoint.com) is offering a solution to content providers wishing to reach users of mobile devices. They’re focusing on Web publications such as newspapers and magazines. Their ASP not only formats for the Palm OS and other device platforms, but it also provides some nifty browser capabilities such as automatic scrolling and summarization.
.H2 Portable Internet
In the Ericsson booth, I ran into Michael Flom, CEO of Portable Internet (at http://www.portableinternet.com). Portable Internet offers business travel information via their Port\@ble Guide ASP.
If you ever fly to a new city for a business meeting and need a handheld map, restaurant recommendation, or hotel information, Portable Internet will provide it, either nationally or on a city-by-city basis. While applications like this have been around for a while, wireless connectivity allows for immediate access to information. This can be quite useful if your meeting plans suddenly change and you find yourself in Chicago instead of Los Angeles.
If you’re not wireless just yet, you can download city information and store it on your device. Considering that there are far more non-wireless devices being used today, Portable Internet is in a good position to reach out to those of us still waiting to switch to a wireless device. Best of all, you can try the service for free when you rent a car and mobile phone from Hertz (at http://www.hertz.com). Hyatt Gold Passport members can download a free trial of the service at http://www.goldpassport.com.
.H2 go2online
Also riding high on the pervasive computing bandwagon is go2online (at http://www.go2online.com), which won the Best of Show award for Marketing and Customer Service with their l-commerce application (yes, I did say "l" commerce). What’s l-commerce? It’s localized commerce. By combining the ability to make purchases through mobile wireless devices with the ability to locate the consumer’s device and the nearest merchant, go2online can take orders on WAP devices for pickup at participating merchants.
The scenario goes like this: You’re leaving work late and want to pick up dinner from a fast food restaurant on the way home. You use your wireless device to launch the Web page for your favorite restaurant chain and order from the menu. The system knows your approximate location and tells the fry-chef when to have dinner ready. You drive through, pick-up your food, and the transaction is billed to your account. Pretty nifty!
.H2 Neomedia Technologies
Neomedia Technologies (at http://www.neom.com), whom I worked for a while back, won a Best of Show award for Commerce with their PaperClick services. With PaperClick, you can enter common UPC codes into a mobile device (Palm devices, WAP devices, etc) and retrieve specific product information or make a purchase. They were exhibiting a competitive shopping application from Qode (at http://www.qode.com).
.BEGIN_KEEP
.H1 Conclusion
All in all, the show emphasized the applications people will be using in a wireless world over the nuts and bolts of infrastructure. It’s good to see that the wireless marketplace has matured to the point where real-world concerns are driving new product development. Given time and a relatively stable economy, we can hope to see these types of services hit the mainstream relatively soon.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Internet World, visit http://www.internetworld.com.
For more information on Internet World Wireless 2001, visit http://www.pentonevents.com/wireless2001/.
For the article, "Beginners guide to developing wireless applications" by Dan Velasco in the November 2000 issue of DominoPower, visit http://www.dominopower.com/issues/issue200011/wireless001.html.
For more information on Brience, visit http://www.brience.com.
For more information on Ingram Micro, visit http://www.ingrammicro.com.
For more information on BarPoint, visit http://www.barpoint.com
For more information on Roundpoint, visit http://www.roundpoint.com.
For more information on Portable Internet, visit http://www.portableinternet.com.
For more information on Hertz, visit http://www.hertz.com.
For more information on Hyatt Gold Passport, visit http://www.goldpassport.com.
For more information on go2online, visit http://www.go2online.com.
For more information on Neomedia Technologies, visit http://www.neom.com.
For more information on Qode, visit http://www.qode.com.
For more information about Palm computers, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Theodore Durst is an Associate Technical Editor for ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing, a freelance writer, analyst, and product marketing wonk. He can be reached at theo_durst@zatz.com.
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ee6f155
.END_KEEP
