OT:
By John Dodge
October 9, 2000 12:00 AM ET
Two weeks ago, I headed for the airport in Austin, Texas, for a return trip home to Boston. My spirits were high. It was mission accomplished in nailing down some key interviews at Dell, and for once, I wasn't rushed.
Any hopes of a routine trip home were dashed upon arrival at the Delta gate (did I mention Delta?). The connecting flight through Atlanta was canceled, and so the mad rush back to the ticket counter began.
After rebooking through Dallas and encountering subsequent delays there (did I say DELTA?), the idea hit me. I had tripped over the Great American Wireless Application.
As it turns out, Delta had booked me on another flight before I was notified of the initial cancellation. The 30-minute wait in the ticket counter line could have been avoided had Delta sent notice of the flight cancellation and the new flight data directly to my digital phone.
An e-mail might have read something like: "Flight 578 canceled. You've been rebooked on Flight 932, leaves 6:30 p.m. Go directly to Gate 7/Austin for check-in."
The sad fact is, this scenario is likely to play out sooner in Beijing than New York. Hewlett-Packard has opened four wireless bazaars for demonstrating and testing a range of wireless devices. Know where they are? Tokyo, Helsinki, Beijing and Singapore—all places where using cellular phones and wireless appliances is as common as wearing socks.
"The U.S. could get left in the dust," said Ann Livermore, president of HP's Business Customer Organization and overseer of the bazaars.
The reasons why wireless is more popular elsewhere in the world are complicated, given that technologies at the device level are universally flawed. eWeek Technical Analyst Jason Brooks this week looks at some new Bluetooth, Motorola Timeport and Handspring Visor technologies. They are small steps forward.
But I'm still looking hard for reasons to go wireless in the United States. Michael Maggio, CEO of NetMorf, a Boston-based mobile business solution provider, claims ownership of the term "m-commerce." In the words of Maggio's PR person: "He views mobile commerce as an additional channel for expanding reach to new customers and reinforcing relationships with existing customers."
That makes more sense than pinning hopes of wireless advances on delivering omnipresent information, such as stock quotes, and annoyingly miniature Web sites—even e-mail, for that matter—and although I'm sure many will disagree, any cost/hassle/benefit analysis rules out things like casual Web surfing for now.
But if the hassle of wireless is outweighed by avoiding the corresponding hassle of the problem it solves, there could be a huge market opportunity.
Would someone please convey that to Delta?
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