Two disparate, but parallel tracks are emerging in the wireless Internet world: the business track and the consumer track. The business track is developing along the lines one would expect it should.
Wireless applications are being developed that seek to go behind a company’s firewall to retrieve valuable information to enable employees to be more productive, regardless of their location.
The consumer track is more bizarre. Location and personalized services, yes. But beyond that, entertainment is the money maker.
(When did consumers get to be such low lifes?).
I am not being condescending; I suspect I will belong to this group, at least at some level. I’m a fun person. I like to play MineSweeper and Solitaire. I used to be a genius at Ms. PacMan. At one time, I even subscribed to Games magazine.
But for the first time in my 15 years of reporting, I wrote down the word “book-making” while taking notes at a conference, and the speaker wasn’t referring to Barnes and Noble.
Instead, the wireless Web will bring you auto racing (and betting odds) in Europe and horse racing (and betting odds) in Hong Kong.
And of course, pornography is already available on the wireless Web.
On a more innocuous note, kids will socialize with each other by playing wireless games. Friends will exchange e-mails and at the same time, chess moves. Instead of simply e-mailing a colleague to meet for a beer, animated graphics will accompany the email.
Here are some tidbits of conversations taken away from last week’s Wireless I.T. show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Consumer applications are designed to give users instant gratification, which can lead to customers getting “addicted” to the games they are playing.
Downloading cartoon characters is the most common task done on NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode network.
Teens are looking forward to entertainment over their wireless phones. They want to be able to alter the outcome of a TV situation comedy or vote a contestant off the island, so to speak.
Video apps will be big. People will watch up to five minutes of video before getting bored. (As a mother with a gorgeous baby, I can see the appeal of this one.)
Instead of just reading on your Web-enabled phone about the score of the baseball game, you will be able to hit a button to hear the roar of the crowd as Sammy Sosa hits one out of the park.
Now there’s a brave new world.
