Wireless 2000 Show to Highlight Internet-Enabled
Telephones
By Lisa Levenson
Wireless 2000 Show to Highlight Internet-Enabled Telephones
New Orleans, Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Cellular telephones that
can download and play digital music, show movies and television
programs, or let users shop and surf the Internet will be the
focus of next week's Wireless 2000 trade show in New Orleans.
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association's
convention will run Monday through Wednesday at the Morial
Convention Center. CTIA's Latin American conference is scheduled
for Wednesday, while sessions for smaller wireless companies and a
program on wireless data are set for Sunday.
In addition to promoting whiz-bang new features, phone makers
and service providers are eager to tap into the wireless-data
market, which Cahners In-Stat Group forecasts will attract 23.9
million U.S. users by 2003, up from 1.73 million last year.
Carriers are hoping wireless access to the Internet will entice
customers to use their phones more -- and spend more money.
''CTIA seems to be about wireless data in all its flavors,''
said Ken Hyers, a Cahners analyst. ''Everybody is getting onto the
data bandwagon. It's just about trying to figure out what people
want and how to package it.''
A Lehman Brothers Inc. research note published this morning
forecasts that half of wireless phone owners will buy data
services by 2007, up from the firm's previous forecast of 25
percent. By that year, between 18 percent and 21 percent of
wireless carriers' revenue will come from data, Lehman analyst
John Bensche wrote.
''We see faster penetration, deeper overall penetration, and
a higher ultimate average revenue per unit from data
subscribers,'' he wrote.
More than 20,000 executives and wireless enthusiasts are
expected to attend Wireless 2000. Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill
Gates, AT&T Corp. Wireless Group Chairman and Chief Executive John
Zeglis, Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, America Online
Inc. Chairman Steve Case and U.S. Federal Communications
Commission Chairman William Kennard are scheduled to speak.
New York-based AT&T rose 3/4 to 45 5/8 in early trading.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft fell 1 to 93 3/4. Amazon.com,
based in Seattle, fell 1 3/16 to 67 1/4. AOL, based in Dulles,
Virginia, rose 1 1/8 to 61 1/8.
New Products
Wireless data is becoming more important to phone companies
as they upgrade their networks to so-called third-generation
standards. With this new technology, they expect to offer Internet
access to wireless phones at speeds as much as three times faster
than today's fastest personal-computer modems.
Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. will demonstrate its ''high data rate
technology'' at the show. It's expected to take on more
significance as phone sales outpace personal-computer sales. AT&T
Chairman C. Michael Armstrong has predicted that there will be
twice as many wireless subscribers as PCs worldwide within three
years, with one wireless phone for every six people on Earth.
At the show, Sprint Corp.'s PCS Group plans to introduce a
new ''smart phone'' from LG InfoComm with personal-organizer
functions. It also will unveil a number of Samsung Corp. phones
with larger screens for Web surfing or features that target teens,
like the capability to download special rings and screen images.
Nokia Oyj's 8890 world phone, another new entry, is a 3.2-
ounce, brushed-aluminum device as big as a deck of cards that can
be used around the globe because it relies on global system for
mobile communications, or GSM, technology. The tiny phone also has
an infrared port for exchanging data with other devices.
Alliances, Ventures
With software included in many new cellular phones, some
users already can download driving directions, weather forecasts,
stock quotes and news updates, and they can communicate with their
companies' computer networks.
Xerox Corp. and Wireless Knowledge LLC, a venture of
Microsoft and Qualcomm, are among the companies entering this
market. They want to help mobile executives gain access to
documents on their office computers while they travel, with new
computer servers that let workers retrieve and send documents to
others using pagers or cell phones.
''Content and office functionality now moves to wireless
devices,'' said Clarence Wesley, general manager of Xerox Mobile
Systems. The Xerox MobileDoc service will be available on certain
Motorola Inc. pagers and Nokia phones.
Hyers said he expects Wireless Knowledge and Sprint PCS,
which already have a relationship, to ''tie the knot more tightly
than they have in the past.''
Microsoft Investment
Last May, national wireless provider Nextel Communications
Inc. received a $600 million investment from Microsoft to help
develop its Nextel Online service. The world's largest software
maker said earlier this month that it's in talks with various
wireless carriers to carry content from its Web sites using MSN
Mobile.
''They're like an octopus -- let's put our arms here and here
and here -- we'll hug everybody,'' Hyers said, referring to
Microsoft.
Microsoft won't be the only company striking partnerships at
CTIA, said Jon Dorfman, associate analyst at the Strategis Group,
a Washington-based market researcher.
''There are going to be a lot of major relationships and
alliances announced,'' he said.
Motorola, for example, plans to unveil collaborations with a
company whose products help block vehicle noise and a developer of
in-car wireless communications systems, to tap the so-called
''telematics'' market.
Strategy Analytics Inc., a Wellesley, Massachusetts-based
market researcher, forecasts that more than 50 percent of new cars
will be telematics-capable by 2006, with the market opportunity
surging to $24.3 billion worldwide.
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