Applications are Key to Wireless Internet Growth
Just
like the Internet strategy became indispensable for companies in the
early 1990s, wireless strategy is becoming more important for
businesses of all types, from small home-office operations to large
Fortune 100 companies. Declining prices for wireless access and
services, changing socioeconomics supporting transformation to an
information-based society, Internet penetration offering users
real-time information, handheld devices becoming mainstream, increasing
use of mobile phones, higher transmission rates and bandwidths,
introduction of new bandwidth-intensive mobile data applications, and
convergence of fixed and wireless communications platforms — all
contribute to amplified wireless Internet adoption.
Following the build-out of the mobile Internet
infrastructure, new mobile applications will drive unprecedented
growth. However, content providers have already discovered that the
mobile Web is not the same as the desktop Web, and unfortunately the
wheel will have to be reinvented in the wireless Internet services
implementation. To give an example of how different the conventional
desktop Internet is from the wireless Internet, it is worth analyzing
the most-important premise that both services are built on. One of the
great things about the conventional desktop Internet is that it
disregards location, making the same data accessible no matter where
the customer is logging on. Wireless Internet, on the other hand, will
become heavily reliant on location, offering services and data based on
the customer's location.
As in the case of the conventional Internet, before the
users will be able to fully understand the value of the wireless
Internet, applications will have to be built that offer improved or new
ways of accomplishing day-to-day tasks, offer entertainment, and make
work and business processes more efficient. End-user surveys show that
among the most-useful wireless Internet applications are e-mail;
location-based directions and mapping; location-based Yellow Page
services; content delivery, including stocks, news, sports, and
weather; instant messaging; and receiving discounts and promotions
based on location. Location, of course, plays a very important role.
A new concept of the wireless Internet Services has
started to evolve in the last few years. Qualcomm saw enormous
opportunity in wireless Internet services, and debuted the new wireless
development platform, Qualcomm's Binary Runtime Environment for
Wireless (BREW). BREW is an open, end-to-end solution that provides
tools services for applications developers, device manufacturers, and
network operators to lower time-to-market barriers and efficiently
develop, deploy, buy, sell, manage, and maintain wireless data
applications.
Developers use BREW to build wireless applications
quickly, spending minimal resources. Operators use the BREW solution to
deploy, manage, maintain, and support applications; to provide
applications discovery services; and to bill users. BREW reduces costs
and risk to network operators and enhances their operational efficiency
by lowering infrastructure and integration costs, reducing
time-to-market with an end-to-end solution, and increasing operational
efficiencies for operators. In early 2002, Verizon Wireless launched
the BREW application services, and immediately saw a 9-percent increase
in average data revenue per user.
For mobile phone consumers, the built-in "Mobile Shop"
offered with the new BREW-enabled phones allows users to easily find,
add, and remove applications with just a few clicks. Applications
written for BREW offer excellent graphics, speed and action, and
real-time interactivity. Already, mobile users can play a game of golf,
file an expense report, access Zagat's Restaurant Guide, find a
destination map, and get directions, while sitting on the train, in the
cab, walking to the office, strolling in the park, or sitting at the
beach. BREW offers a categorized search, making it easier for end users
to find any application they need.
As was proved by i-mode in Japan, platforms such
as BREW are key to bringing wireless data to the masses in the same
fashion that Yahoo!, AOL (the first Internet Service Provider to offer
consumer services in the United States), CompuServe, and other Internet
service providers were instrumental in delivering the Internet to the
masses. Carriers see that as well: Verizon Wireless is already offering
the 1G black-and-white and color Internet-enabled phones to consumers,
and is the first carrier in North America to offer downloadable
applications to consumers nationwide. Applications consumers can
download over the air on a phone are available nationally, and Verizon
believes that these services will help it reach its goal to morph the
wireless phone into a valuable resource for consumers who want
up-to-the minute information to help them manage their life.
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