re: Handheld Game - PALM et al - Approaching Wireless Data & Multimedia Tornados
Excellent discussion of what will enable the Tornados
>> Mobile Trends For 2001
Richard Adhikari
January 16, 2001
TechWeb
PlanetIT
planetit.com
New devices, Technologies on the Way
The market for mobile products is always on the move, and as you might expect, you'll see a raft of new wireless products, technologies, and applications emerge this year. New products may include smart phones and feature phones that will let users access video over handheld. According to some industry experts, some tantalizing new technologies could include wireless multimedia applications, streaming media, unified messaging, enterprise integration for wireless applications, and location-based telephony.
Some products and technologies will enable futuristic scenarios like those depicted in Star Trek, while others will create new revenue possibilities.
Japan's Kyocera Wireless is offering the Kyocera QCP Smartphone, a combination tri-mode cellular phone and Palm OS device running over CDMA that weighs 7.53 ounces. Other similar devices are Nokia's dual-band 9210 Communicator, the Ericsson R380 combination cell phone and PDA, and Handspring's VisorPhone module for the Handspring PDA. Meanwhile, Microsoft is teaming up with Sagem to add phone capabilities to its Pocket PC. And Palm, not wanting to be left out in the cold, is working with Motorola to produce a cellphone-Palm Pilot combo.
Many of these devices will support HTML browsers with Secure Socket Layer encryption. Some will support Web Clipping applications and WAP browsers, as well as Palm's infrared connectivity or something similar. "The idea is to converge voice and digital abilities so you can read e-mail and send messages and have interactivity," says Nasser Barghouti, chief technology officer at OneWorld Software Solutions. "If I could get rid of three devices and use only one for communications -- not things like reading long documents or programming -- I would." Barghouti admits Palm-cellphone combos are bulky, but says their convenience outweighs that bulk.
However, Giga analyst Ken Smiley disagrees. "Smart phones like the Kyocera QCP let you use them as either a Palm Pilot or a cell phone but there's not a lot of cohesion between them," he says. "I don't think they understand the integration of the two." Still, integration between cell phones and PDAs will improve over time so they morph into "voice devices that have better data capabilities than regular feature phones have and have higher-resolution screens," Smiley says.
Multimedia and Video
Meanwhile, multimedia and streaming media products will proliferate. Sierra Wireless will bundle its AirCard 300 wide-area wireless network interface cards with PacketVideo's software, which provides access to audio and video applications, so users can receive multimedia applications on their mobile devices. SolidStreaming and AnyDevice Inc. will integrate their software platforms so carriers and enterprises can deliver data, audio, and video to wireless Internet-enabled devices. The SolidStream System runs over second-generation (2G) wireless networks and will also run over 2.5G and 3G networks. Separately, SolidStreaming and Sprint PCS will jointly offer real time streaming video, audio, and text to future multimedia-enabled wireless devices and test MPEG4 software for the forthcoming 3G market.
MPEG4 devices for the 2G market will be available from other sources this year. Geo Interactive Media Group of New York and Korea's Samsung have jointly developed an MPEG4 streaming video cell phone based on Geo's patented Emblaze chip. Users will be able to browse through lists of available video content on their cell phones the way they browse channels on their TV sets. Geo's technology works on 2G CDMA wireless networks and will also work on 2.5G and 3G wireless networks.
Tornado Development will offer streaming video over wireless through its Tornado Messenger unified messaging engine, which already has the voice mail, e-mail, fax, SMS and paging capabilities common to unified messaging software. Tornado is using Geo's Emblaze technology for streaming video. Video messages have to be recorded with a PC-based camera but can be output to any handheld device, says Tornado product manager Duke Fonner.
However, lots of work must be done before wireless streaming media is widely available. "Wireline streaming video is still in its infancy and wireless is even newer," says Anjeanette Rettig, PacketVideo's vice president of corporate communications. She says three issues must be resolved before wireless becomes reality: There must be more bandwidth; user devices need to be multimedia-enabled and be merged into combination products such as PDAs with cell phone capabilities; and there must be compelling content and some type of applications consumers and corporations will want to use. PacketVideo is partnering with mobile telephony providers around the world for trials; partnering with various device manufacturers to embed its technology into their devices and with about 90 percent of makers of chips used in handheld devices; and partnering with wireless application builders. "We're bringing together all the pieces of the puzzle that would shape the industry," Rettig says.
Unified Messaging
Wherever Steve Goldstein is -- on the treadmill at his gym, out meeting clients, at one of his two offices in Chicago, driving around, or looking at real estate -- he is always available to clients. Goldstein provides real estate consulting services on office space in Chicago to high-tech companies. He uses the Webley Personal Assistant automated communications manager software product, which lets him use one phone number to receive calls, faxes, and voice mail, and offers call forwarding, call screening and access to an address book, conference calling, and e-mail by phone. It also provides Web access so users can manage communications over the Web. Using Webley has saved Goldstein money. "I was paying a couple of hundred dollars a month for alphanumeric paging; in a busy month Webley costs me $60 tops," he says.
Wireless unified messaging applications will be aimed at small- to medium-size companies because that market is largely unexplored. For example, NoticeNow is targeting "small to medium-size companies with aggressive sales forces with lots of communications going back and forth because large enterprises are already paying huge sums for full-blown PBXL voicemail systems from people like GlenAyre and Octel," says Keith Busch, NoticeNow's vice president of business development. NoticeNow will incorporate wireless technology from mobile Internet platform vendor Air2Web into its unified messaging applications so users can access e-mail, faxes, and voice messages from any digital wireless device. Air2Web's platform accepts text and audio content in various standard formats and automatically renders the content for presentation on various handheld devices.
Enterprise Integration
Increasingly, software vendors will either wireless-enable their off-the-shelf applications or build wireless applications from scratch for the enterprise. Syclo, whose customers are global Fortune 1000 enterprises, has extended its Agentry object-oriented layered workbench into the wireless arena. Corporations use Agentry to build write once applications that run on various handheld devices without having to be recompiled. Meanwhile, Magic Software has integrated WAP support into its Web-based Magic eService and Magic eMerchant applications. LOBBY7, which wirelessly enables existing applications for corporations and lets you build builds new wireless applications from scratch, is seeing strong demand for its services. And wireless application framework vendor w-Technologies plans to move into the enterprise this year, primarily targeting Fortune 500 companies, "to see if there's a way to leverage their existing networks or wireless networks to provide them with a competitive advantage such as better service to employees or customers," says Randy Dence, vice president of business planning and development at w-Technologies.
But implementing wireless applications or wireless-enabling existing legacy applications is more complicated than it sounds. Corporations going wireless have to modify their enterprise systems architectures if they want the process to go smoothly. "Enterprises will have to treat planning for handhelds as an infrastructure decision," Dence says. "They need to work on management of these devices and how they'll be used, and applications which would be of benefit to the enterprise."
Giga's Smiley agrees. "Enterprise architects will have to take into account how to open up corporate accounts to let users with wireless PDAs not only connect in and get data from the enterprise, but also to synch that data between the two," he says.
On Location
Location-based technologies, which will let users locate the nearest restaurant in a strange town and let retailers beam information or advertising messages to consumers' handsets, for instance, are generating interest. But this year will see the advent of the next generation of location-based technologies.
Hugo Barra, director of innovation and cofounder of LOBBY7 Inc., says the new generation of location-based services could prove to be money-makers for public venues such as retail stores, football stadiums, casinos, and hotels. For example, a consumer could walk into a retail store and smart sensors in the store using Bluetooth or wireless LAN technology will be able to pinpoint the consumer's exact location and provide advanced information about the products on the aisle the consumer is looking at.
"We're talking about advanced multimedia videos and very rich content on a product -- it's almost like having a color screen in front of you," Barra says. "It's much richer than coupons or ads, and the consumer won't pay for it."
Another example would be in a sports stadium where consumers could not only get instant replays on their handhelds but could also get access to information about the game such as statistics on players; and could order food or drinks or posters electronically while watching the game. That could be an expanded revenue channel for the stadium, Barra says. Barra calls these services venue-specific services, and says LOBBY7 is "already working in this area."
Never mind the science fiction stuff; the business of America is business, and corporations will go where the money is. Look for more advanced technologies and capabilities to emerge as they offer more revenue potential. <<
- Eric - |
