In a society where instant gratification is demanded and time is
a precious commodity, wireless devices have become our personal
companions.
Once only found in the briefcases of business professionals,
cellular phones can now as easily be found in the knapsacks of
high-school students or the handbags of stay-at-home moms. According
to David Pearce Snyder, lifestyle editor of The Futurist magazine,
within 10 to 15 years, 80 percent of Americans will rely solely on a
cell phone, making the wired line phone nearly obsolete.
Regardless of the mass appeal of cellular communication, wireless
data services, especially in North America and Europe, are still
being built on business models that target predominantly the
business user.
Taking a page from the business strategy of DoCoMo’s highly successful
i-mode service, where the primary focus is on meeting the needs of
the consumer first and the business professional second, wireless
network operators would realize that corporate contracts are not
enough to finance their sophisticated infrastructures.
The recent string of Chapter 11 filings among wireless data
service providers, such as Motient and OmniSky, as well as public
WLAN vendors, such as MobileStar, reinforces the argument that a
consumer-based subscription model is necessary to generate profits.
Even though a recent study by Cahner In-Stat projects that the
public WLAN market will increase from $3.9-million in 2001 to
$225-million in 2005, it is difficult to imagine that success will
come based solely on business-oriented marketing plans that target
the business traveler.
If the relative short history of the cellular communications
market is any indication, wireless data services should be targeting
the individual at work, at home and at play if they are expected to
generate profits for debt-laden wireless operators.
