Wireless
Needs a Wing to Fly on
Carmen Nobel
11/10/2000 - eWEEK from ZDWire
Copyright (c) 2000 ZD Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Some 220 high-tech companies will
be in Las Vegas next week hawking new products that use
the word "wireless" in their descriptions. But few will
be offering what IT managers say they want most -- a way
to integrate wireless as a useful solution.
While
major companies such as IBM, Sun Microsystems Inc., Microsoft
Corp. and even Electronic Data Systems Corp. will try to
address that concern at Comdex with what they claim are
more complete wireless integration services, scores of others
will announce a patchwork of disjointed wirelessly enabled
software and hardware. This hodgepodge of offerings only
adds to customer confusion and is stalling adoption of the
technology.
"The
majority of the products available today do not meet my
No. 1 priority, which is seamless integration with the back-end
services," said David Thompson, senior manager of technology
risk services at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in Boston. "When
standards, de facto or otherwise, are in place that allow
the products to be easily integrated with market-leading
services, security concerns addressed and usability issues
resolved, then I would happily roll a product set out to
an entire enterprise."
Other
complaints of some IT managers include a dearth of back-end
and network support for myriad applications -- even useful
ones for e-mail and sales force automation.
"The biggest pressure here from employees is for wireless
e-mail, which is also the most sensitive and forbidden by
security," said Robert Rosen, information management director
at the Army Research Lab, in Adelphi, Md.
On the device side, many IT professionals say they've resorted
to using a trial-and-error method of testing products, especially
given the breadth of available cell phones and PDAs (personal
digital assistants).
"Our
guys end up looking like a classic 'Dilbert' cartoon where
he has everything strapped to his waist," said Duncan Vickers,
CIO of BC Gas Utility Ltd., in Vancouver. "Our employees
are constantly asking about wireless solutions, but they
also understand that each device is packaged with its own
inherent limitations," said Lester Morgan, CIO for the National
Football League, in New York. "Our dream of the perfect
wireless device that replaces cell phone, pager and PDA
in a [Motorola Inc.] StarTac-size footprint has yet to be
realized."
What's
on tap?
The
myriad wireless demonstrations due at Comdex, however, are
expected to only exacerbate the confusion among wireless
shoppers. Taking up a fair bit of space at the show will
be the Bluetooth Pavilion, where hardware giants and startups
alike will show devices communicating via the short-range
wireless radio protocol. The gadgets are plenty, but a lack
of software drivers for applications keeps Bluetooth a nascent
technology.
Elsewhere,
Metricom Inc., which offers wireless laptop connections
of up to 128K bps, will be demonstrating its Ricochet line
of products and will announce services in 46 new markets.
Upstart MShift Inc. will introduce its namesake platform
for developing applications for wireless devices. Caps Lock
Inc. will feature a "virtual secure channel" for wireless
devices, which includes user authentication, one of several
security demonstrations at Comdex.
In
addition to these arguably useful products, many companies
are demonstrating applications for specific devices. The
applications were developed in just months to get in on
the wireless trend.
"It's
just like two years ago when everyone threw 'Internet' on
their name in an attempt to get to market," said Kevin Baradet,
network systems manager at Cornell University's Johnson
School of Management, in Ithaca, N.Y. "Now it's 'wireless.'
A lot of money will be thrown into it, a lot of half-baked
ideas will be funded and eventually the solid business players
will be left. If you pick the wrong one, you could be left
with a product line that gets canceled."
"The
wireless area is going to have a massive, massive shakeout,"
said Richard Barnwell, chief technology officer at Zefer
Inc., a Boston-based Web integrator. "There are all these
wireless point solution companies popping up. If they can
develop a product and take it to market in seven months,
then either they're rocket scientists or what they're doing
just ain't that hard."
Back to Pressroom
