Is this it?
Is the wireless data market sitting on the runway to (finally) take off, offering instant text applications anywhere on the planet?
Like a child before Christmas, I anticipate the day when wireless data applications make my life easier, when I easily can use a powerful little handheld device to store and access instant information, to remind me of upcoming events, to be my personal assistant.
WirelessKnowledge L.L.C., the joint venture of Qualcomm Inc. and Microsoft Corp., promises to “enable secure and airlink-independent Internet access to all mobile users.” Initially, the company said it plans to offer services that will maintain messaging, e-mail, calendaring, contact list and basic information services through the Internet, plus access to Exchange-based corporate networks.
That is all well and good. But here’s the sentence that intrigues me: “Additional features and services will be added over time.”
It makes sense to tailor services to the business market first. But I want seamless access to wireless data apps for my personal life.
When Apple Newton proponents dangled the idea of exchanging business cards and other information via little pocket-sized devices that everyone would carry, I bit.
When General Magic said I would have my own personal agent that would go get things for me, I believed.
Daily, I can think up applications for these devices. I switched doctors a few months ago. My records have yet to be forwarded. (I also asked for a copy of my records for own my files, which I have yet to pick up.) Wouldn’t it be great if we were all writing on the same little electronic pads, and our little pads would just exchange the information upon request?
I clip coupons, but I don’t actually redeem them. They sit unused in a pile on the kitchen desk until they expire. Then, I throw them. Just think, electronic coupons! The applications are endless.
The closest I am going to get anytime soon to a personal assistant is the electronic version. So I continue to believe.
Will it work this time?
