December 18/25, 2000

	Technology Of The Year Wireless
	Taking To The Airwaves

Despite its drawbacks and limitations, wireless Internet access took off this year, with business professionals leading the way.

By Matthew G. Nelson and Aisha M. Williams

Other technologies:

CRM: Customers Take Control The Internet gives customers more options, making the need for CRM applications more important to businesses than ever. XML: The Language Of E-Business The young standard spans a variety of industries and has become the universal data interchange language. Back to Technology Of The Year Introduction

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ireless access to the Internet isn't a new concept, particularly for business users. What's new is the momentum that's gathering behind the mass adoption of the wireless Internet.

This year has seen a number of wireless device manufacturers begin shipping wares in large quantities. Cell phone providers such as Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia released the first Web-enabled phones. Research In Motion Ltd. and Motorola unveiled wireless E-mail devices, while OmniSky Corp. began offering Palm V devices with wireless modems. Palm Inc. followed suit with its Palm VII, which has built-in wireless Internet access.

At the same time, wireless service providers are aggressively expanding and offering new services. Verizon Wireless, AT&T, the newly formed Cingular Wireless (a combination of the 11 properties of BellSouth and SBC Communications), and Sprint PCS are among the contenders fighting for a potentially massive market. If experts are right, 1.2 billion people worldwide will subscribe to cellular services by 2003.

The most widely used application is E-mail, but analysts predict a growing number of businesses will use wireless technology to let workers easily access company data with cell phones and personal digital assistants. "Initially, [our wireless efforts] were for the sales force. We're now doing a more scientific rollout to pilot groups and asking them questions: Does it increase productivity, sales, and customer service?" says Kim Spenchian, CIO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Santa Monica, Calif., which is issuing wireless Internet phones to employees. MGM Studios has added features to the phones, such as Lotus Notes access.

Businesses are also experimenting with giving customers access to order and shipping information via wireless devices. "We're very automated and want to get information out to our customers so they can tell us what they want on a much more timely basis," says Jim Jackson, VP and CIO of Intertape Polymer Group, a paper-packaging products manufacturer in Sarasota, Fla.

This year also brought a healthy dose of reality to expectations. Transmission rates and network access have been woefully underpowered for the types of applications users want, while developers struggled with a format for presenting information. Look for 2001 to bring some improvements in these areas.

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RIM Delivers What Many Want: Wireless E-Mail

By Matthew G. Nelson

esearch In Motion Ltd. took the market by storm this year with its specialized wireless E-mail and calendaring product, the BlackBerry. Shipped in the winter of 1999, the BlackBerry operates as a handheld wireless E-mail device with a miniature keyboard for typing messages.

The BlackBerry made a rapid thrust into both the consumer and business markets this year, as RIM signed up more than 5,000 companies to install BlackBerry server software on their networks. The software lets employees send messages within and outside their companies' E-mail systems using BlackBerries. According to RIM, 80% of its handhelds were shipped to business accounts.

The BlackBerry is a sixth-generation radio and an eighth-generation application environment. It's had a long gestation period. "We had a nice, tidy house in a back street, and suddenly, the oceans rose and we had beachfront property," Research In Motion chairman and CEO Jim Balsillie says. "No one was more shocked than we were."

In a world where more and more business is conducted from the road, BlackBerry users have become virtually addicted to the instant E-mail service that lets them access messages anytime, anyplace. "I live on this thing," says Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and now chairman of Loudcloud Inc. His employees, who also use the BlackBerry, were warned not to use the device during staff meetings or face a $20 fine.

The BlackBerry is expected to evolve so that it can hold all of an individual's information and meet all of his or her communication needs, Balsillie says. "These devices will be wireless wallets that let you carry all your critical information with you all the time."

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