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OCTOBER 15, 2003
Telecom's Hottest Tech, Coolest Gadgets A nifty advanced handset, a GPS-wireless service, a SIMple fix to secure Net payments, and more -- all at Telecom World 2003  Telecom and technology outfits from all over the world displayed their newest and most innovative gizmos at the ITU Telecom World conference in Geneva from Oct. 12-18, 2003. The event is a giant trade show held once every four years under the auspices of the U.N.'s International Telecommunications Union, a global organization that coordinates telecom networks, services, and standards. BusinessWeek's Andy Reinhardt has been covering the conference and providing analysis and commentary about it (see these "ITU Telecom World 2003 Updates" from Reinhardt and his colleague Steve Rosenbush). He has also been prowling the conference floor and checking out the exhibits. Here's his roundup of some of the most interesting products and technologies he saw:
The Delling of Cell Phones How's this for ambition? Vancouver (B.C.)-based Sierra Wireless (SWIR ), a $100 million maker of laptop accessories, is wading into the $60 billion handset business dominated by the likes of Nokia (NOK ), Motorola (MOT ), and Samsung. What gives? Sierra Wireless now sells credit-card-size "PC card" wireless modems, add-ins that let laptop users get on the Internet and send e-mail via mobile-phone networks. But with a bit of help from Intel (INTC ) and Microsoft (MSFT ), Sierra Wireless is taking a big leap into handsets aimed at businesspeople. Its new Voq phone, which will ship in the first quarter of next year in the U.S. and Europe for an expected price of $250 to $350, will be the first to use a new 200-megahertz version of Intel's powerful, energy-efficient Xscale microprocessor and the 2003 version of Microsoft's Windows Mobile software. As such, it represents the latest bid by the twin titans of PC technology to stake out a place in the booming mobile-phone arena. Creating mobile phones from building blocks such as Intel processors and Microsoft software is a direct challenge to the mobile industry's traditional model -- and threatens to introduce PC-like commoditization to the business' high-end "smartphone" segment. Sierra hasn't yet announced any resellers for the Voq phone, but it now sells its PC cards for GSM and CDMA networks through operators such as Vodafone (VOD ), T-Mobile, and Verizon (VZ ). The Voq features a color screen, rubberized sides, and an unusual fold-out QWERTY keyboard. It will be pitched to corporate customers who want mobile access to e-mail and other company information. One interesting element is that businesses using the phone won't have to add separate servers to manage outgoing e-mail to mobile users. Using an "always-on" wireless connection and a secure VPN (virtual private network) tunnel, Voq users can get mail "pushed" out to them as if they were sitting at their own desks. Find Me a Good Meal A small group of companies banded together to demonstrate the potential use of global positioning system (GPS) data when combined with a handheld PC, a mobile connection, location information, and mapping software. It's not a product now -- and may never be -- but it points the way for potential applications to come. The demonstration pulled together a half-dozen diverse technologies. It starts with a Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ) iPaq handheld computer, fitted with a plug-in radio modem for sending and receiving data via GPRS (general radio packet service), the so-called 2.5G data system that runs on top of GSM digital mobile networks. The iPaq also includes Bluetooth short-range radio technology for communicating with nearby devices. In this case, the iPaq exchanges information via Bluetooth with a palm-size GPS receiver, which obtains location information from a network of orbiting satellites. So how does it all work? Say you want to find a restaurant in Geneva. The GPS device knows where you are and sends the information to the iPaq. To show your location, the iPaq can then fetch a map via the GPRS connection from an online mapping service. You tap in that you want to find a Japanese restaurant within one kilometer of where you're standing, and the iPaq sends out a query to an online directory of restaurants tagged by location and genre. Presto: You see onscreen the location of all the places that fit the bill. You can tap on one to get more details, including its address, menu, prices, and even photos of the interior. Want to make a reservation? Too bad. In this demo, you have to whip out your phone and dial the restaurant yourself. But with one of the phone-handheld hybrids now flooding the market, you'd be able to click on the number and dial automatically. The group that devised the demo included SiRF, a San Jose (Calif.) maker of chips that work with the GPS system; Chicago-based Navigation Technologies, a leader in digital mapping software; London-based Telmap, which devises mapping-based applications; and chip giant Intel, which coordinated and promoted the project.
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