Could this be the year for wireless data?
Although proponents of wireless data are no doubt tired of being asked that question, some announcements this week certainly have to cause their hearts to race, if just a little.
Lucent Technologies Inc. and NEO Networks, and Sun Microsystems and Texas Instruments, respectively announced plans that will enable more wireless data to be transmitted over cellular phones, personal digital assistants and the like. The strategies and the technologies are different, but the goals are the same-to make phones smarter by enabling them to better handle text.
Nokia this week licensed SpyGlass Prism software so that when Nokia smart phone users want to access wireless data, they have an easier time of it.
Development of any of the 3G technologies proposed are designed to enable wireless video and Internet access.
Each week RCR gets one or two announcements of some utility company or law enforcement agency signing to use Cellular Digital Packet Data service.
Little by little, the number of wireless data users grows.
All of these forward-looking announcements sound so wonderful, but I must ask: Am I the only one who has trouble just getting up on the Internet? Will this actually be easier with my cell phone, when I am paying charges that could be more than a local call?
Technology is not often born smoothly. Wireless technology is never an easy birth. Tread slowly, industry. (No, this is not a veiled plug for a certain technology). Don’t promise more than you can deliver. Learn your lessons from Newton and Simon. Don’t overhype this stuff before it is ready to deliver.
People love their wireless phones and alpha pagers. People accept dropped calls and dead batteries because even though the devices can be troublesome, the value they offer outweighs their nuisances fivefold.
The Internet, while it certainly is a business necessity, can be a source of great frustration. Don’t let your bread-and-butter service become a source of frustration.
… Speaking of birth, Congratulations to Managing Editor Tina Eichner and her husband, Pat, on the birth of their first junior journalist, little Megan Nicole. In true reporter fashion, she squeaked in (or out, in this case) just before deadline.
