In an effort to push the slow-moving wireless market forward, Swedish software vendor Columbitech AB on Tuesday launched its wireless virtual private network (VPN) product in the United States.

Most wireless products focus on pushing content already available on the Web to mobile devices. But security issues hamper wireless access to mission-critical competitive information. "The best way for companies to get a return on investment on wireless technology is to give employees out in the field access to time-sensitive competitive data. But if you don't have proper security measures in place, you could be unknowingly making that same information available to competitors," says Tom Scannell, analyst at market research firm Mobile Insights.

The lack of security products for this relatively new market segment has caused large companies to shy away from wireless access. Companies that do give employees wireless access to data residing behind the corporate firewall usually have to jury-rig a VPN--definitely not the way to go, analysts say.

Enterprise users need customized VPN products such as Columbitech's that have been built from the ground up specifically for the complex wireless environment, Scannell says. Columbitech's Wireless VPN is designed to let users access core business data residing on the back end of their corporate databases securely over wireless IP networks. It is device agnostic and supports the Palm OS, the Pocket PC, notebook PCs, and other handheld devices. The application is based on Wireless Transport Layer Security, a wireless protocol with encryption and public key infrastructure support. It features session and transaction recovery, so if users move out of a network coverage area and lose a signal, they can pick up where they started once coverage resumes.

Columbitech's Wireless VPN will be available in beta in the second quarter of this year. Pricing is not yet available.