Making the wireless Internet fit in

New York City (Telephony) - The Internet World Wireless 2001 show started off today with a keynote speech from Jacob Christfort, chief technology officer and vice president of product development at OracleMobile. He believes wireless Internet players have to change their line of thinking to help the industry take off.

There are some myths associated with the wireless Internet, which have caused a slowdown of successful application proliferation.

"People have expected that wireless would just happen instead of thinking about what people actually need," Christfort said. "People have to understand that it is a different medium that should fit a different part of people's lives."

He used consumers' experience with the first television as an example to follow. With what we know now, the first T.V. seems as if it were a poor experience considering its small size and black and white picture. However, flashiness and flair was not what made it successful. Consumer uptake soared because the content and application fit into people's lives unlike anything else up until that time.

Another myth that often has been accepted is the idea that Europe is way ahead of the U.S. in terms of wireless Internet. "While there might be a lot of SMS going on in Europe, that is not the wireless Internet," Christfort said. In fact the U.S. has the highest adoption of user experience with wireless with the remote control, he said.

Instead of focusing on the success of the PC-based Internet and simply porting that over to the wireless world, companies need to build truly mobile applications, Christfort said.

"Up front, we need to understand the business problem and find out what can be created to add convenience and solve it," he continued.

"We also have to truly understand the mobile experience," he continued.

The mobile Internet experience might make more sense to consumers if it was comprised of a series of links to and from information as opposed to a menu-like experience, he suggested. "Menus do not make sense."

Instead the idea is that consumers could begin with their personalized weather report in the morning and then link to other information that is pertinent to their day.

On the business side of things, companies have to be able to blend the Internet and Intranet information because there is no room for multiple windows as with the PC, Christfort said.

The business market is one that OracleMobile focuses on. One of its business customers is GlaxoWellcome, which has applied mobility to its pharmaceutical business and has saved time and money and enhanced its competitive edge, Christfort said.

"Mobile solutions can increase quality of service, provide faster time to market and do it all at a lower cost," he said. "This is where we see the highest adoption of wireless coming."