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Wireless may have captured the world's attention thanks to voice applications over cell phones, but what's next in the integration of voice and data?
To answer that question, four of the most visible executives in the wireless field took the stage at Cyberposium's Saturday "visionary" panel on February 10 in order to compare and contrast their own views of the future for wireless.
Their conversation, as led by moderator Geoffrey Moore, a partner at the venture firm Mohr Davidow Ventures as well as chairman of The Chasm Group strategy consultants, was conducted rapid-fire, and touched on a wide range of issues. These included so-called killer applications, design (or "form factors"), infrastructure, value chain implications, and privacy.
The future of killer apps
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| The phone is morphing into the Palm, [and] the PDA. And, by the way, that's driven by the hardware on a single chip. | |
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| — Irwin M. Jacobs, of Qualcomm |
As for "killer apps," Carl Yankowski, the CEO of Palm, Inc., emphasized what he perceived as the growing desire of consumers to manage their own personal information. Going forward, he said, that entailed "e-implications" for scheduling.
"You start to take that to the Internet," Yankowski said, withdrawing a Palm Portal from his jacket pocket, "and then you go from there into e-mail and instant messaging, which we certainly know are killer types of applications."
Ben Waldman, of Microsoft Corporation, remarked on what he called the "multi-access aspect of mobile devices" as a breeding ground for killer applications. As vice president of Microsoft's mobile devices division, Waldman said, "I think there's a sweet spot, say, in the corporate market in the enterprise space, [and in] being able to access not only your e-mail, but also all your calendar and contact information from your device.
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"Do so wirelessly, do so from a device that's always up to date. That's something that's a killer application," Waldman said.
"The phone is morphing into the Palm, the PDA [personal digital assistant]," added Irwin M. Jacobs, chairman, CEO, and founder of Qualcomm, which develops wireless products and services. Stressing the potential for individual devices to handle many tasks, Jacobs added, "And, by the way, that's driven by the hardware on a single chip."
Form meets function
Panelists didn't only trade ideas about what new devices should be able to do. They also debated the important matter of design, agreeing that style and weight greatly influence customers' decisions.
Form goes hand in hand with function, according to Yankowski of Palm. "Form factor is not just physical size," he explained. "The most important thing we have to think about is the environment that we're in. We're in a mobile environment, which means the devices need to be thin, elegant, wearable, and fashionable."
Added Natsuno, "If a phone weighs more than one hundred grams [3.5 ounces], you will lose the market."
Moderator Moore also queried the panel about infrastructure: everything behind the device, all the way back to the network implications of each application. According to Waldman, "A lot of software needs to come together" before Microsoft can make its wireless vision into a reality.
Secure client services servers are also vital, as well as information transmission and reception, panelists said. "Privacy is a critical issue," cautioned Jacobs. "Location — where you are — is something you want to keep private; you have to find a way to control that. So that's immediately part of this system.
"You will know where you are; the phone knows where it is. Do you communicate that back? Or if the system knows where that is, is that as well-protected as ... the other information you're transmitting?" he asked rhetorically.
When Moore broached the subject of the emerging value chain ("Who is going to work with whom, and where will the power lie?"), Yankowski suggested that the power currently lies with network infrastructure providers, who have the "pipes" that go directly to customers' homes. The pipe providers, he said, are "in critical position to become customer friendly and [to] make sure that they are working relationships outward with the hardware providers and the system infrastructure providers, so that they're offering the best total solution."
Jacobs summed up the value chain issue, noting that wireless access to the Internet is no longer a question mark; it is certainly on the horizon. "Our interest is making it happen as quickly as possible, and make it happen as usefully as possible," Jacobs said of Qualcomm. "And that means having many applications early on that are reliable, and not too expensive."
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