LAS VEGAS-Computer and Internet royalty gathered in Las Vegas for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association Wireless 2001 show, offering up opinions and advice about the comparatively new wireless industry that is becoming an integral part of the desktop, laptop and wired Web world.
Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief “Yahoo!” at Yahoo! Inc., started off the succession of technology gurus that spoke during the opening day’s keynote session. Yang, as well as Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell Computer Corp., Craig Barrett, president and CEO of Intel Corp., and Steve Ballmer, president and CEO of Microsoft Corp., all casually answered questions posed by CTIA President and CEO Tom Wheeler.
Yang, who co-founded Yahoo! in 1994, touched on various issues affecting wireless companies, including the pressure to keep up with the data capacity of wired pipelines. He said that as wired bandwidth increases, there is an expectation that wireless will increase as well, which is becoming a serious problem given that the wireless industry only can exist with a finite amount of spectrum.
“Wireless presented a wonderful last-mile solution but it is spectrum-dependent,” Yang said.
Yang emphasized the importance of maintaining a long-term view when measuring the success of the wireless industry.
“You have to continue to view this as a very long process,” said Yang.
He predicted wireless services will follow the consumer, and not the other way around. Devices will be customized around an individual’s needs, and a person’s preferences will be stored on the network and accessed by that person’s unique device.
The notion of customization and adding overall value to computers, and indirectly the lives of those who use them, was driven home by Dell. Dell said his company is very focused on leading the wireless notebook computer market. Over half of Dell’s sales in the education market in particular are wireless notebooks.
“The real action in wireless as far as we’re concerned is 802.11 in notebooks,” Dell said.
Intel’s Barrett also preached the importance of adding value, but also making sure a user can have scalable access to the Internet. In a comment that might have ruffled a few feathers in the wireless camp, Barrett said the majority of the utility of wireless devices is an adjunct to the personal computer. Both Dell and Barrett said wireless is just another conduit to the wired Internet, which will always be at the center of new wireless applications and technologies.
Barrett also put his philanthropic hat on and addressed the need for everyone to encourage children to become involved in math and science. He noted the growing lack of qualified engineers and software developers available for high-tech jobs across the board, which in the long term, could have deleterious effects on the progress of all technology.
Ballmer closed out the keynote with an impressive demonstration of several devices that Microsoft has in the works, including an improved Pocket PC. If Ballmer’s diverse display of wireless toys is any indication, the software behemoth could grow to dominate the wireless device market as well. Microsoft seemed very intent on being a major player in the wireless space.
