New tool a boon for wireless Internet?
By Jennifer Davies
San Diego Union Tribune
February 1, 2001
With interest in the mobile Internet brewing, Qualcomm said yesterday it had created a software platform that will make it easier to download music, games and a host of other features into wireless devices such as cell phones or Palm Pilots.
If successful, the platform -- binary run-time environment for wireless, or BREW -- could propel Qualcomm's influence in the wireless world by introducing software for use in a wide variety of devices.
Company executives compared their industry's current state to that of the personal computer industry of the early 1980s, when competing manufacturers developed their own applications, leading to a puzzle of platforms and dead-end applications.
For consumers, BREW could lead to an explosion in the number of services available via a cell phone or personal digital assistant, said Gina Lombardi, vice president of product development for Qualcomm's Internet Services.
What's now called the wireless Web, she said, is just the ability to get streamlined stock quotes and to browse the Internet.
"Just browsing the Web is not very interesting," Lombardi said. "Most people want to use their phones like they use their computers -- for applications."
Qualcomm has been working on the platform for more than nine months. Many of its customers, from phone handset makers to wireless carriers, have been clamoring for some type of standard, Lombardi said.
The plan is to roll out BREW-enabled chipsets in the United States by the end of this year.
But many question whether Qualcomm's BREW announcement is a tempest in a teapot.
Michael King, an analyst with Gartner Dataquest, said BREW will only apply to devices that use code division multiple access, or CDMA, the wireless technology Qualcomm pioneered. He estimates that CDMA phones account for about 20 percent to 25 percent of the mobile phones worldwide.
"This is by no means an industry-wide or even nationwide standard," King said. "It's some wireless industry application standard, but keep in mind, it's Qualcomm and CDMA only. That's a problem."
So far, Qualcomm has inked preliminary deals with a number of manufacturers, developers and phone carriers, including Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless carrier in the United States, and San Diego-based Leap and Korea Telecom Freetel.
Qualcomm also is working on BREW initiatives with Japan's KDDI, a direct competitor of the wildly successful NTT DoCoMo and its i-mode service.
Among the manufacturers, Qualcomm said both Kyocera and Samsung are onboard the BREW train. MP3.com and free e-mail provider NetZero are two of a gaggle of developers that have agreed to use the BREW platform in their applications.
Jeffrey Nelson, spokesman for Verizon Wireless, said BREW will help speed up the delivery of wireless Internet services to Verizon customers. "The open platform means that anyone with a great idea can get that idea to the marketplace quickly," Nelson said.
But Vicki Soares, a spokeswoman for Sprint PCS, a CDMA network, said Sprint doesn't need BREW to create wireless Internet applications.
While a software platform isn't necessary to create the applications, it might spur demand.
Mark Kelley, the chief technical officer for Leap, which is planning to launch its own brand of wireless services, said BREW will make it easier to for customers to get desired features simply by downloading them.
Qualcomm's Lombardi agreed the key to increasing demand will be allowing consumers to decide for themselves what they want out of the wireless Web.
"Instead of everyone trying to figure out what the killer app of the wireless Internet is, what we are trying to say is the killer app is personalization," Lombardi said.
It remains to be seen whether consumers will be willing to convert their easy-to-use cell phones into personal computing devices with many applications, Craig Mathias, an industry analyst with Farpoint Group, told the Associated Press.
"It's certainly not going to be something that everyone is going to want to take advantage of," Mathias said. "It creates a level of complexity that some people won't want."
Jim Brailean, president of PacketVideo, a wireless streaming media company, said the real appeal of the BREW standard is it promises better security.
"As we migrate into a cellular world, security on the networks is important," Brailean said. "Carriers want to know: are these legal apps that won't crash my network?"
Bob Egan, vice president of wireless strategy for the GartnerGroup, said Qualcomm has identified a standards problem that has plagued the wireless industry. But, Egan said, going forward Qualcomm will face competition from others such as Intel and Texas Instruments.
"I give them high marks and kudos for being first," Egan said. "But the jury's still out on execution."
The news of BREW had little effect on Qualcomm's stock price yesterday. Shares were down $1.63 to $84.06.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
