Perhaps the greatest indicator of how the wireless data industry has matured is the almost giddy buzz of excitement generated by this week’s Wireless I.T. show in Santa Clara, Calif., sponsored by the Cellular Telecommunication Industry Association.
In the fall of 1997, some 56 companies gathered in Seattle for what at the time was called Wireless Apps to discuss the future of the then-fledgling wireless data industry, each wondering if that was going to become the long-promised “year of wireless data.”
Two years later, much has changed. Competition among wireless carriers increased to the point where offering value-added data applications is necessary to differentiate service. Contributing to this is the fact that digital wireless networks have finally found their pace and more data-enabled wireless handsets and personal digital assistants are on the market.
And for the first time, the wireless data industry no longer cares about “the year of wireless data.” With the growing convergence of wireless and the Internet prevailing in today’s wireless data climate, one year isn’t enough.
“We’re about to begin what I call the wireless data decade,” said CTIA President Tom Wheeler. “We have invested four years in building a wireless data show and this is the year it all comes together.”
If the size and makeup of the show reflects the size and makeup of the wireless data industry, then Wheeler may be right. CTIA reserved twice the square footage of exhibition space from last year’s show and said preregistration is more than double the entire attendance of Wireless I.T. ’98.
Looking past the numbers, a rather diverse group of companies are expected to attend the show. Delivering keynote session presentations are Sun Microsystems Inc.’s Bill Joy and Palm Computing co-founder and inventor of the new Handspring PDA Jeff Hawkins. Microsoft Corp. has its own special session- during which it is expected to introduce a new microbrowser for wireless phones-and Internet pioneer Cisco Systems Inc. is exhibiting in conjunction with Motorola Inc.
Finally, CTIA has given end users a platform, holding a roundtable discussion with chief information officers of various corporations on the last day to determine how they use wireless data and what they’d like to see in the future.
Also indicative of the Internet’s importance to the wireless data industry is the show’s new home-the heart of Silicon Valley.
“The mountain is coming to Mohammed,” Wheeler said. “What did Willie Sutton say when asked why he robbed banks? `Because that’s where the money is.’ We’re going to Santa Clara because that’s where Silicon Valley is.”
Last year’s I.T. show was marked by Microsoft announcing its intention to offer its version of a microbrowser, sparking fears of a standards war with the Wireless Application Protocol backers. Since then, Microsoft has joined the WAP Forum, but the challenges to the wireless data industry are by no means over.
With the growing convergence of wireless and the Internet, a big question arises over who will own the customer. If content drives usage, there is some concern Internet service providers-which have been much more aggressive in the wireless space-may end up owning the customer. If wireless carriers settle for becoming the pipe, they could find their core competencies becoming a commodity.
“This industry is not going to be commoditized,” Wheeler said, making assurances the industry is not ignoring this issue. “I think there is a difference between owning the customer and monitoring the customer.”
He pointed to the history of the cable TV industry, which experienced a similar issue.
“Cable was a pipe, but it wasn’t sold as a commodity,” Wheeler said. “You bought what the pipe delivered. The great fear then was over programmers controlling and taking over. Would HBO control all cable systems because they were the most popular and profitable channel?”
To get past this, he said carriers decided some content providers would get better channel placement and promotions than others, and the carrier would choose this based on which contributed the most revenue-monitoring what their customers cared about most.
The wireless industry will have to develop its own solution to this ownership challenge, and must keep it in mind as it rushes forward on its new-found momentum.
“The question is, how do you turn the customer into an asset? How do I achieve benefit?” Wheeler said. “That’s a decision that has to be made really carefully and on a phased-in basis.”
