BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : NOVEMBER 13, 2000 ISSUE
TECH BUYING GUIDE Net Services: It's Not Just News Better reliability and smarter software make the wireless Web more useful IBM's TV ads for the new wireless Web are beautifully produced, painting dreamy images of people tapping into the Internet from wherever they happen to be. Who wouldn't want to use her cell phone to buy a cold drink in a sun-dappled Italian palazzo? But in reality, this New Age of wireless data still looks suspiciously like a repackaged version of the Same Old. Stock quotes, sports scores, and the weather already are spewed constantly online and off. Slap it on a cell phone, and it's still the info you heard twice during your morning drive. Things are getting better, though. With more reliable networks and smarter software design, new services are emerging that are truly valuable for people on the go. Instead of just checking on stock prices, you can now trade stocks from your phone, using a range of brokerages including Charles Schwab ( SCH), AmeriTrade ( AMTD), and Fidelity. And as businesses begin to convert their internal corporate software for wireless users, employees will soon be able to download updated customer records before a sales call, or use a Palm to collaborate with colleagues using their Lotus Notes software. ''It's about never having a disconnected employee,'' says Ben Yerushalmi, vice-president of professional services for ViaFone Inc., a Redwood City (Calif.) wireless-services developer. ''Business can be conducted anywhere.'' It will take at least a year before wireless fully arrives in Corporate America. In the meantime, most business users are making do with plain-vanilla consumer services offered by Yahoo! ( YHOO), America Online ( AOL), Microsoft's ( MSFT) MSN Mobile, and virtually all wireless carriers from AT&T ( T) to Verizon ( VZ). Access to such Internet portals as MSN Mobile and Yahoo is free, though you'll have to pay your carrier's wireless Web fees to get to them. Those can range anywhere from free to as much as $6.99 per month or 65 cents per minute, depending on your plan. Each of the wireless portals and carriers features access to its own menu of business news and stock information. The best way to differentiate between the services is by judging how quickly the wireless content is updated. Yahoo is consistently fresh, as is the tech news on CNET's News.com. Others prove spotty: On the night that Amazon released its important second-quarter earnings, ZDNet's wireless site was still listing stories from early in the morning. Instead of simply repackaging news, a new generation of wireless services is creating on-the-fly data that help you better interact with the physical world. Using satellite technology installed on public transportation, as well as predictive software tied to traffic patterns, NextBus Information Systems Inc. lets wireless users know when the next bus or train is actually arriving--for free. Other services include mobile buying-comparison services, such as DealTime and BarPoint.com. Type in the Universal Product Code embedded in a product's bar code, and the Web sites spit back price data collected from dozens of Web merchants. NO WAITING. Not surprisingly, travel services are another fertile area. Scott Halford of Denver, a professional speaker on management, logs more than 100,000 miles each year jetting between conferences. He now uses his Mitsubishi Web phone and AT&T Digital PocketNet service to access the flight-tracking feature on Trip.com's wireless site. Via text alerts, Halford knows when a flight is delayed or canceled. ''I'm now able to plan my time so I don't end up sitting on my rump in the waiting area,'' he says. The rush is on to also develop services tailored for particular industries. Chris Lynch, owner of small trucking company Libra Motor Express in Walbridge, Ohio, is using a service from pFreight of Fruitland, Idaho, to help him track deliveries and find new shipments to load into his semi-trailer. In the past, he spent hours quibbling with dispatchers. Now, he can get information on potential new business in just a few minutes on his phone. ''More access to information means more money,'' says Lynch. Expect that to be a rallying cry as wireless services burrow deeper into corporations. Jim Galligan, director of service business systems for optical-networking company Ciena Corp. ( CIEN), is running his own trial program with a few dozen Ciena field workers who install the company's optical gear into telephone switching stations. Using a Nokia cell phone, they send daily reports on the status of each installation. The updates--which take about two minutes--let Galligan know whether a project is on or behind schedule and whether a worker needs more materials or additional manpower. Before, that kind of coordination required dozens of separate phone calls. Not one of these wireless services works perfectly. For example, when Boston software consultant Gennady Y. Linatser recently tried to trade stocks via Suretrade.com, his Palm V and OmniSky wireless modem conked out in the middle of the transaction. ''Sometimes I don't know exactly what happens, and I don't know if it's confirmed,'' says Linatser. With time, things will get better. Dozens of tech companies have begun building new services and technologies, from stalwarts such as Oracle ( ORCL) and Microsoft to a raft of wireless startups. ''We're at the very early stages of what we'll be able to imagine,'' says Jay Haghley, vice-president of business marketing at Sprint PCS ( PCS) Group. The successful companies will create products and services that actually make business life easier, not just great material for TV spots. By Dennis K. Berman in New York _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS The New Wireless Wonders Desktops What If It Breaks? TABLE: Desktops: Best of Breed TABLE: How the Warranties Stack Up Cool Tools: iFeel MouseMan Help Is Just an E-Mail Away TABLE: How to Hook Up with a Nerd If Web Surfing Is All You're Into... 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