The slow death of Metricom threw their customers for a loop. Here was a company that provided a unique service, yet burned through a billion dollars, and is now seemingly missed by all. Denver-based Aerie Networks recently bought most of the key Ricochet assets for a mere $8.25 million during bankrupcy court proceedings. What went wrong? Here, leading voices from the industry give their take on why a great product wasn't enough... and what the future holds for investments in the mobile Internet space.

Japanese people seem to be constantly on their mobile phones. However, they are using their handsets more for text messaging and surfing these days than for talking.

The high-tech sector has been an integral part of life in San Diego for many years now, but local schools haven't always shared in the industry's advances. The San Diego County Office of Education is working to change that with a countywide initiative to dramatically increase the use of technology in schools, putting wireless tablet PCs in every classroom by the 2003-2004 school year.

Wireless games are expected to generate revenues of $4.4 billion by 2006, a revised prediction after Ovum had questioned Datamonitor's initial prediction of a mobile games market worth over $16 billion. Datamonitor's earlier prediction, first revealed at ECTS 2000, was one of the catalysts of the hype surrounding the wireless gaming market. Ovum claimed that the predictions made by Datamonitor are overrated and that consumers will be willing to pay for wireless games only when they perceive value.

There have been no eye-catching marketing events or even any anecdotal evidence to suggest that NTT DoCoMo's FOMA - the world's first third-generation wideband CDMA service - is yet on its way to becoming a Japanese social phenomenon to rival the once sensational i-mode, DoCoMo's existing mobile Internet service.

Is the cap lift equally capable of improving QoS and making carriers more profitable? Or only the latter? Unfortunately, we may not know until the smoke clears whether the consumers, the carriers, or both are the winners. On November 8, 2001, the FCC began a gradual lift of the spectrum cap for mobile radio frequency (inclusive of cellular PCS).

Some people think outdoor ads clutter the landscape. I couldn't help but notice the vast array of billboards for dot-com companies along California's Highway 101 a few years ago. I didn't mind them, but then again, I was into the whole dot-com thing. Now most of them have been replaced by other offerings. While it could be argued that there is too much outdoor advertising today, it can be highly effective when combined with other marketing avenues. Who would have thought a few years ago that billboards and wireless could have anything in common?

The wireless Internet has become a way of life for Japanese consumers. What will it take to create a similar experience for North American users? NTT SOFT thinks they have the answer and they have set up an ambitious plan to achieve their goals. Over the past decade, NTT's wireless division, NTT DoCoMo, has developed the mobile communications technology that has given Japanese consumers access to more than 40,000 Internet sites as well as more traditional online services.

You feel like an emasculated geek; you have to feel that low when you get off the plane in Hong Kong or London or Cape Town and suddenly, your wireless devices do not work. They just sit in your pockets, useless, and bigger than the loss of any cool, is that you are simply out of touch, unreachable. Big deals may be pending - clients may be screeching for attention - but none of this will come your way because the probability is enormous that, abroad, your wireless devices are so much inert plastic.

Just before the clock ran out on a disastrous year for wireless Internet investments, a $15-million wager was placed on the near-term wireless future - in the name of Santa Monica, CA startup Boingo Wireless. By this time next year many of you will be Boingo subscribers, accessing the Internet at multimegabit speeds from your laptops, from thousands of hot spot locations in airports, coffee shops, and public gathering places all across the country.

Even before the present wireless boom, the field of wearable computers was developing rapidly. Now it's poised to explode into the marketplace of unwired must-have technology, with companies such as Levi Strauss already offering a line of jackets that incorporate a hidden MP3 player and mobile phone connected to a remote control and microphone in the collar. Although other technologies must continue to evolve in order to enable true pervasive computing, wearable devices clearly bring with them the greatest amount of value and are likely the final piece of the puzzle.

Launched in October, DoCoMo's 3G FOMA service signed up only 30,000 subscribers in its first three months. There's no guarantee that 3G will be a success to rival i-mode, or even catch on in a significant way. According to Yoshinori Uda, NTT DoCoMo's EVP, the Japanese pioneer of the world's first third-generation W-CDMA mobile phone service may not meet their target of 150,000 subscribers by the end of this coming March.

Worldwide wireless broadband connectivity is spreading around the globe. What technologies are taking us there? How close are we? What are the obstacles? Robert Hoskins, director of the Broadband Wireless Alliance (BWA), describes three network environments that help define the three available wireless connectivity types. 'Think about it more as PANs, LANs, and WANs,' he says, 'Personal Area Networks, Local Area Networks, and Wide Area Networks. All of these can be either fixed or mobile networks. You sacrifice bandwidth for mobility.'

The explosion of devices, markup languages, and platforms in the mobile application arena has developers pulling their hair out. Trying to have a separate application for every language is hard enough - but even then, the application still needs to be optimized for different devices. Developing and maintaining multiple applications typically becomes extremely costly...and still ends up restricting users' choices.

The guest in room 542 is upset and loudly demanding the manager. For most hotel managers, that means scrambling to get whatever details are available from the operator who took the call and hightailing it to the fifth floor. But at the Radisson Hotel in Minneapolis, general manager Jim Callaghan can fire up his Compaq iPaq while en route and check out the guest's name, length of stay, payment status, and other details. 'You can be that much more prepared,' Callaghan observes.

The restrictions placed on the use of wireless devices within hospitals didn't stop this company from deploying a handheld system that would address the leading contributors to escalating health care costs and accidental patient deaths: lack of secure access to clinical data and inability to document and reduce adverse drug reactions and medical errors.

Mobile operators are in a precarious position. Airtime revenue is decreasing faster than fixed costs, and competitors are multiplying. Not only is there high overhead for customer acquisition, but retention costs are also increasing. Mobile operators need to act now to ensure that they can derive the incremental revenue streams they need to survive.

At the end of December 2001, 30-billion SMS messages a month were being sent on GSM networks around the world. Not bad for a technology that was meant for a corporate market. The explosive growth of SMS, especially in Europe, can be attributed to many factors. But let me state the obvious. It's easy to use and you don't have to talk to someone! All this from a voice-based device - go figure!

Navigating the overwhelming choices in wireless/mobile hardware and software technology requires mastery of the various issues; only then can you get on with development of a wireless software application for a PDA. With the relentless coverage of military action in Afghanistan and the occasional media touting of 'all weather capable' platforms, many readers may be surprised to learn that the weather can and does adversely impact nearly every military weapon system and operation (including personnel). Low cloud cover, freezing precipitation, and severe windchill are just several of the weather conditions that can lower the probability of successfully completing a mission.

DoCoMo's share price has fallen 33% since a new share issue a year ago...but will cheaper shares attract new capital to the Japanese mobile giant? And just how safe is Vodafone's investment in JAPAN TELECOM? January 2002 ended with NTT DoCoMo's confirmation of their plans to list in New York and London in March. The mobile phone operator also announced a five-for-one share split aimed at increasing liquidity and raising their attractiveness to retail shareholders. DoCoMo, which has invested about $13.4 billion in overseas partners, hopes to raise their international profile through the listings and increase their financing options to support their growing global operations. The company had originally aimed to list overseas last September, but poor market conditions, a planned write-down of their investment in KPN Mobile, and delays in preparing computer systems forced them to push back their listings.

In a recent interview, Jeff Goldman spoke with Dan Mattox of the Walt Disney World Resort's Information Services department, and found there's a lot more wireless behind Mickey Mouse than you might expect.

From the development of the first wireless package tracking system in the transportation industry more than 20 years ago to today's cutting- edge technologies such as Bluetooth and 802.11, FedEx continues to rely on wireless solutions to enhance delivery and improve customer service.

Traditionally a consumer player, VoiceStream is shifting its focus toward the enterprise with new sales approaches, devices, and data applications. It used to be that the only time you heard anything about VoiceStream, it was through the company's spokeswoman, Jamie Lee Curtis.

Until recently, the mobile marketing industry was too embryonic to be noticed. Its explosive growth in Europe over the past nine months has now shown SMS-based marketers that they have a fantastic opportunity to talk to their prospects and bases on a one-to-one basis.

Mobile convergence will remain 'the engineer's dream and the businessman's failure' until companies learn and master the four fundamentals that are currently shaping the market landscape. Here the president and CEO of PCIA, Jay Kitchen, examines all four of them.

It has been a busy month here in Tokyo. Early on, KDDI, Japan's second-largest telecoms group, said it aimed to ship 7 million advanced service 3G handsets, thus considerably intensifying competition over advanced third-generation mobile phone services.

You don't hear much about the Tauzin-Dingell Telecom Bill, unless you're in Washington, DC, or in the camp of either the CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers) who oppose it or the ILECs (Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers) who we might assume all but wrote it. But Tauzin-Dingell (now in the Senate) would allow the Baby Bells to keep their legacy networks and any of their new broadband infrastructure developments to themselves. It would gut the Telecom Reform Act (TRA) of 1996. It could raise prices on all telecom services; it could be the end of some CLECs.

Mobile VPN technology offers enterprises a mature, proven solution for providing secure, private access to remote users of enterprise resources. This article provides an overview of what's available for immediate deployment.

Traditionally, school districts have been late adopters rather than pioneers of technology. The New Brunswick (New Jersey) School District, though, stepped into the technology fray in a big way when it recently built its own wireless network in order to loosen the captive hold the phone company held over its 13-site operation.

Every month, more and more Americans are able to enjoy the benefits of broadband Internet access through technologies such as DSL and cable modems. However, outside of the nation's cities and suburbs, access to these types of broadband networks isn't always possible. Thanks to an easily deployable wireless broadband solution, one rural county has been able to bring high-speed data services to local businesses and residents for a fraction of the cost of other broadband technologies.

Many different companies, from PC and white goods manufacturers to telecom and consumer electronics firms, have started to develop and market products for the home automation market. A report on connected home services, by Cahners In-Stat Group, estimates the U.S. market will multiply by over 27 times the 1999 figures by 2004. Technologies within the home, such as broadband, Bluetooth, Wireless LAN, and HomeRF, will help fuel this growth. Orange is already exploring technologies and working with a number of different companies to turn ideas into reality. But in this newly emerging market, it will be interesting to see which way the trends will go.

In every market there will be winners and losers. This is especially true for early-stage 'experimental' industries such as wireless. Those companies brave enough to jump in early pave the way for lasting business models. I loved hearing about new dot-com business models - even if some didn't quite add up - just as I now follow innovative wireless capabilities.

The year 2001 witnessed significant progress in the development of applications for mobile data. Advertisements now tell consumers they can get driving directions, manage personal information, access enterprise applications, and even receive video clips on their mobile devices. The mobile Internet appears poised for takeoff, but economic lessons learned from its desktop predecessor will determine its ultimate success.

Keeping up with the whirlwind of new technologies and products can be an overwhelming proposition, to say the least. In order to keep my head spinning faster than an electron, I decided the Java Message Service was the next 'have to know' technology. Late at night, over many cups of coffee, I would glue my browser to the Sun Microsystems Web site and follow their JMS tutorial. For many nights, until dawn, I would write simple JMS applications that proved to be as shaky as the hands that wrote them. Then I discovered AshnaMQ from Ashnasoft Corporation.

Mobile-phone handset sales in Japan fell 2.4% last year to 40.6 million units according to Gartner, the private research firm. The news coincided with NTT DoCoMo's warning that it expected a 30% decline in new subscriptions this year. The slowdown in growth stems from a lack of attractive new handsets and services that encourage users to replace their existing handsets. J-Phone has also reacted to the decline.

Will 2002 finally be the year when wireless lives up to the hype surrounding it? Many industry insiders think so. Read on for an analysis of the 10 areas that hold the most promise. 3G Data E911 Wi-Fi Machine to Machine Smart Phones Java Always-on GPRS Connections GSM Bluetooth Face it: for five years - or has it been ten? - every wireless year began with great, bold, exciting forecasts and, just as surely, every year ended with dashed expectations. This is as undeniable as the fact that today's cellphone carriers and manufacturers are limping, financially maimed shadows of the powerhouses they were just a few years ago. But guess what: this may still be the year when, finally, we see those big, transformational changes that pump new excitement into wireless.

Because data cable runs are costly and disruptive in industrial settings, wireless alternatives, especially wireless Ethernet, are rapidly growing in popularity. As is often the case with new technology applications, there is a wide range of wireless Ethernet implementations on the market. Some are standards-based, some proprietary; all offer varying degrees of appropriateness to these environments.

Applications such as voice-activated dialing, voice portals, handsfree conferencing, and others are not a panacea. They won't fully support a crippled industry. They will, however, help it to regain its feet.

The hallmark of wireless communications to date has been constant technological evolution. First there were analog technologies such as AMPS and NMT, then came the transition to digital with GSM - which in turn is evolving with technologies such as GPRS.

Europe is seeing a new order coming to fruition as the Net we know begins to detach itself from the PC and migrate to the mobile world. With this migration, developers are faced with new trials, and marketers, with fresh challenges. What they share is the lack of common standards around the globe and even on your doorstep.