Making people appy: Wireless customers' data needs prove simple

Once upon a time, the wireless industry seemed determined that highly sophisticated data applications would one day join hand-in-hand with voice to be streamed over wireless networks. But it's beginning to look like customers are seeking a much simpler path.

At the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association's Wireless Apps '97 in Seattle last week, it became clear that wireless customers are more likely to be drawn to more utilitarian services than flashy presentation. That means wireless access to information such as calendars and e-mail on corporate intranets, as opposed to the ability to surf the Internet, said one industry observer.

"People are interested in Internet connectivity, but they really want their own information first and foremost," said Andy Seybold, president of Pinecrest Press, a computer and communications consulting firm and publisher.

Firsthand evidence of those desires came from an America Online representative, who said AOL's customers have a tendency to steer themselves toward the simplest approaches to accessing information-which could fit into a wireless format.

"The mass market has shown a willingness to use very stone-age parts of our technology and enjoy them very much," said Myer Berlow, senior vice president of interactive marketing at AOL. "Where we make the nexus is in figuring out how to give customers want they want in a wireless environment."

Still, Seybold pointed out that openness is increasing on the user side to use wireless to accomplish traditionally wireline tasks, so much so that users themselves are beginning to expect that they will be able to be wirelessly connected to their information. For the industry, the challenge is to educate end users-particularly the decision-makers in business environments-by showing them the value and security of wireless transmission, Seybold said.

"[Management information systems] managers are really interested in wireless, but they're scared to death of it," he said. "As an industry, we have to make the MIS community comfortable with wireless."

But the business community may not be the only lucrative market for wireless data applications. Bo Piekarski, vice president of marketing and business development at Ericsson, said developers of wireless applications need to include consumer market in their scope, including the so-called Nintendo Generation. "Applications like games, the ability to interact with airlines and airports and mapping or location services could prove to be valuable consumer tickets," Piekarski said.

In addition, if the development community is going to continue to target business users, it must begin to churn out services that appeal to business users' need for intuitive applications that are easy to use, Piekarski said.

"We're so hung up on these business applications, and even there no one is developing any user-friendly software," he said. "That's the part that is really missing: simple applications."

Some of the larger wireless networks infrastructure vendors exhibiting at the show featured third-party developers in their exhibit space, a practice that has become increasingly prevalent at recent trade shows. But the feeling emanating from many of the event's sessions was that a much stronger effort needs to be made to forge marketable wireless data applications.

"Somebody needs to plant the flag," said CTIA President Tom Wheeler, almost pleading with the industry to make more progress in the wireless data area. "Somebody needs to establish leadership."

Wheeler himself pointed out that Microsoft had recently become a member of the CTIA, a milestone he views as a strong endorsement of wireless data. "When Microsoft steps up and joins the major wireless equipment suppliers in helping to shape the future of this industry, that is an important threshold," he said.