Anytime, anywhere Internet access gains popularity - Industry Trend or Event

Communications News, May, 2000 by Morris Edwards

Wireless handheld devices bring new meaning to security and support.

Are we entering the "post-PC" era, when palm-sized computers, microbrowser-augmented cell phones, and other wireless handheld "information appliances" will become more popular than personal computers for accessing the Internet?

It might seem to be a close call if you include consumer information appliances based on the television platform, such as NetTV set-top boxes and Internet gaming consoles, which appeal to people who are frustrated with or intimidated by PCs. IDC expects NetTV set-top boxes and Internet gaming consoles will account for more than half the sales of information appliances, as the market grows from 11 million devices sold in 1999 to 89 million in 2004.

Given this growth, consumer information appliances will outsell consumer PCs by 2002. The picture changes, however, when you include the business market. Combined PC sales to consumers and business will be double those of information appliances for at least the next five years. Information appliances, it seems, will complement rather than replace PCs, even in the home, and increased use of the Internet will boost sales of both types of devices.

In the corporate world, wireless technology and the desire for anywhere, anytime access to the Internet will drive the sales of palm-sized computers, smart phones, and similar devices from 1.72 million in 1999 to more than 33 million in 2004, which represents a compound annual growth rate of 77.4%.

Handheld devices can only be successfully integrated into the enterprise if the devices are managed and supported within the IT infrastructure. Fortunately, tools are becoming available to allow IT managers to control the applications and data stored on handheld devices from a central location.

With the anticipated explosion of mobile Internet access over the next few years, it's not too early for corporate network managers to start thinking about which wireless services they will need to accommodate these mobile users--and how they will handle the security and support challenges posed by the proliferation of handheld devices.

WATERSHED EVENT

With handheld companions, the watershed event was the introduction of the Palm VII in May 1999. With its integrated wireless capability and improved viewing of Web content on the fly (Palm Query Applications), the Palm VII reinvigorated the market for personal digital assistants (PDAs), and spurred development of wireless modems, wireless application service provider (ASP) services, and wireless phone connectivity.

Likewise, creation of the wireless application protocol (WAP) was the seminal event powering the growth of the smart phone market and its embrace of the Internet.

WAP is a set of specifications that lets developers build networked applications for wireless handheld devices using the wireless markup language (WML), a derivative of HTML. WAP is designed to work within the constraint s of smart phones and other handheld devices, such as small, monochrome screen, limited CPU and memory size, lower bandwidth, and restricted input and navigational capabilities. It also runs on all network systems, including global system for mobile communications (GSM), code-division multiple access (CDMA), and time-division multiple access (TDMA).

Since being developed by the WAP Forum, an industry association of 200 vendors, the spec has quickly become a de facto standard. Most of the world's handset suppliers have launched WAP phones, and several service providers have begun to integrate the technology into their networks or plan to do so.

America Online has signed deals with six vendors of mobile devices to expand wireless access to AOL services. Yahoo!, MSN, and other portal sites have built subsites that extend services to PDA and smart-phone users, while Amazon and several other e-commerce sites have customized their shopping services to Palm VII users.

In the near term, content providers are using server software to reformat Web pages for access via microbrowsers. Ultimately, more and more content will be designed specifically for microbrowser access, especially data specific to handheld devices, effectively creating a multilayered World Wide Web.

WIRELESS WEB

Spyglass was one of the first to develop server software for reformatting Web content for easy access by a variety of WAP devices and other information appliances. Called Prism, the software can be deployed in the network or at the content site. It adapts what is sent to users based on the sort of devices they have, taking into account bandwidth, processing power, and display size limitations. Prism also allows the tagging of specific kinds of information on the site that visitors can easily extract from the Web pages for viewing on their handheld devices.

Meanwhile, Oracle, Motorola, and others have formed a company to translate PC applications for use on WAP-compliant devices without requiring massive rewrites. Oraclemobile.com will use Oracle's XML Portal-to-Go product to streamline and customize Web content for such devices.