Wireless, mobility, connectivity
Consultants, industry observers and technologists are in unison that most things wireless will be big next year
By Lee Ting Ting
Computerworld Malaysia
computerworld.com.my
JUST as in 2002, once again the wireless phenomenon tops the list of technologies and trends to look out for in 2003. The wireless trend is popular simply because people today are demanding for greater mobility in communications. Instead of being just a cool piece of technology, mobile communications and computing is very much a lifestyle concern today in that mobility is becoming an integral part of people's daily requirements.
Sun Microsystems Malaysia managing director Govinathan Pillai links the wireless trend to the third wave of network computing. "The third wave of network computing will transform businesses as it addresses the need for anywhere, anytime, anyone connectivity, communications and commerce. This means everything with a digital heartbeat will connect to a more efficient and responsive business infrastructure that delivers increasingly personalised services at lower costs," he says.
At the enterprise level, wireless applications are fast on the rise. In fact, an IDC survey reveals that 35 per cent of Malaysian companies have implemented, or have plans for implementing wireless applications at the enterprise level. "More companies are realising the significance of integrating wireless applications into their IT infrastructure in order to deliver better and faster service that banks on real-time data," says Piti Pramotedham, Computer Associates' regional managing director for Asia South.
"More organisations are moving away from the traditional ways of conducting business towards a more secure digital environment of e-mails, virtual meetings and enterprise portals. Hence, wireless applications are geared to facilitate seamless integration between the enterprise infrastructure and network security," explains Piti.
According to TF Chong, country manager of HP Malaysia, the proliferation of wireless networks—such as the growing number of public wireless hotspots over the past 12 months—contributes to the evolution of mobile computing and communications in the local market.
"Unlike most other recent technologies, the wireless technology owes its potential uptake to the general public instead of corporate users because businesses have to first grapple with the implications on their systems' security and reliability," observes Chong.
Butt Wai Choon, managing director of Microsoft Malaysia, says that the reason for greater uptake next year is because mobile technologies and devices are becoming very affordable. "For under RM1,000, you can 'hotspot' your home, and a PCMCIA card now costs only about RM200 as compared to RM600 some nine months ago," he says.
He also expects that short notification and alert messages will constitute the bulk of wireless traffic next year. "More sophisticated than SMS, these notification/alert applications will act as value adds to mobile users. For example, banks can use this sort of notification or alerts to inform customers of their credit card charges and billing statement details," says Butt.
Janson Yap, Deloitte Consulting's high-tech manufacturing and process leader for Southeast Asia, sees ultra wideband (UWB) as the potential mobile technology that will change trends in the current wireless scene.
"There has been a fair amount of capital investment in the UWB technology over the last three to four years. Companies such as Xtreme Spectrum are now producing hardware and applications in this space that will potentially overtake Bluetooth in allowing high speed data to be transferred economically over short distances," says Yap, adding that UWB might be considered a more suitable technology for both home and wireless office applications. |
