There seems little doubt the wireless Internet is going to be a reality, but what remains unclear is exactly who will use it, on what devices and using which technology.
Many types of wireless devices are entering the marketplace with wireless Internet capabilities, using various standards and languages. Currently in domestic use is the Palm VII wireless personal digital assistant from Palm Computing using Web Clipping technology, Phone.com Inc.’s Hyperdata Markup Language-based solutions, Wireless Markup Language solutions and the expected release of full Wireless Application Protocol technology.
MobileVillage.com L.L.C., an Internet portal company designed for corporate information technology buyers and solution providers, recently completed a survey that found 72 percent of corporate IT department decision-makers plan to deploy the Palm OS devices for their mobile technology needs. However, not all plan to extend wireless capabilities to those devices. When looking specifically at wireless access to corporate data, the study found increasing interest in WAP phones and other devices.
“Part of the reason for the Palm’s popularity is that it serves the corporate professional in a wide range of industries for their personal use at a low cost,” said Jon Covington, chief executive officer of MobileVillage. “However, the $100,000-plus unit sales that are being planned by some of our corporate consulting clients show that Palm is not the clear winner in the vertical markets. Smart phones and their related enterprise solutions are the hot ticket.”
Wireless phones that in some way have access to corporate data ranked third on the MobileVillage survey at 29.5 percent, while WAP-phones specifically garnered support of 24.6 percent of those surveyed. Because some WAP phones are included in the smart phone category, some crossover of results is expected, the company said.
Half of the respondents, or 49.4 percent, said their company intends to buy mobile and wireless technology in the next two years. Sales and marketing applications were the largest driver for these IT purchases at 45.9 percent. Utility applications came in second at 26.2 percent, while transportation applications followed with 14.8 percent, health care at 13.1 percent and public safety at 8.2 percent. Other applications included crisis management, distribution, educational uses, film and video production, financial tracking, futures trading, hospitality sales, infrastructure, mobile e-commerce, telemetry and work force management.
Despite this demand, the study found a significant gap between expected purchasers and expected vendors offering these devices.
“While WAP-enabled devices are growing in popularity with buyers, nearly double the number of vendors planned to sell them,” the report said. MobileVillage blamed a lack of marketing and education about such devices within the corporate market.
Monitoring traffic
Meanwhile, as more firms wirelessly enable their Web sites, companies monitoring Internet traffic today have turned an eye to wireless Internet access use. One such company, WebSideStory, announced an enhancement of its HitBox tracking service to include monitoring the types of wireless devices and microbrowsers that access wireless Web sites. The technology is in beta testing with several firms, with commercial availability expected by the end of spring.
Companies creating sites for use on wireless devices may use the HitBox technology to compile data about visitors. This includes information about the device itself, such as make, model, browser used (such as HDML or WML), screen size, resolution and service provider. It also includes activity on the site, such as numbers of visitors per day or hour, time spent on the site and which site the user was at most recently and where the user went next.
“The Web is much more than a brochure. Businesses need to understand where the customer came from, what they do, how they get there and what equipment is used to get there so they can put all the proper bells and whistles in their site to make the experience enjoyable and get the customer to come back,” said Geoff Johnston, director of corporate communications at WebSideStory. “We’re selling a service on a pay-as-you-go basis. We track activity on a Web site to offer a live, real-time graphical user interface Web site service to our clients who can log on to see what’s happening on their site.”
In addition, WebSideStory’s StatMarket.com compiles data gained from all Web sites using its tracking technology to report global averages on the equipment and technologies used. Some 45 million Web sites use the HitBox technology to monitor visitors. StatMarket.com lists what type of browser has accessed those sites, be it Microsoft Explorer or Netscape Navigator, and also details the computer, Internet service provider and other data. These results are available on a subscription basis, which browser manufacturers may use to gauge interest in their products.
When enough wireless Internet sites incorporate the HitBox technology to track users, expected by the end of the year, Johnston said StatMarket will include similar results, allowing phone vendors, microbrowser manufacturers and service providers to check the usage of their products.
“As more wireless sites begin being monitored, the more valuable StatMarket will be,” he said, guessing there are about 1,000 wirelessly enabled Web sites today. “I think there are a lot more that are in development now … There’s no doubt this stuff is not going away.”
Media Metrix is another firm that tracks Internet traffic. A spokeswoman for the company said it will begin reporting data on wireless access to Internet sites in the second quarter, but she could not reveal specifics on the service at this time.
