Highlights From What They Had to Say
Andrew M. Seybold, editor in chief of the Forbes/Andrew Seybold’s Wireless Outlook newsletter, said, "In 25 years there aren’t going to be any wired phones left and I think it might happen even much sooner than that — ten to 15 years. I also think phone numbers will go away" . . . and "the person will be the number." . . .These units will allow you "access to huge back-end databases for day-to-day access to any kind of information."

Rod Adkins, general manager, pervasive computing division, IBM, said he would like to see personal handsets capable of transmitting 3G images, by introducing the concept of a hologram. "You would see a hologramic image of the person you’re speaking to," he said, "and see them in full view "— their every gesture and every facial expression.

While others place their faith in the wireless handset, Larry Smarr, professor of computer science, University of San Diego, believes that that "piece of hardware will have vanished long before 25 years have passed." He goes on to say, "Instead, you’ll have an interface with the Internet that is totally integrated with the body. There might, for example, be a little laser that writes directly to the retina so that everything in the world will become augmented reality" – in essence everything you touch will have its own cyber-reality.

He then describes how "all your body’s vital functions will be read out and transmitted directly onto the Internet to some sort of secure private medical agent that is monitoring your body for trouble."

Expanding on Smarr’s vision is best-selling science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke with his concept of the "brain cap." "This cap would be put on your head," he says, allowing "the impressions, sights, everything, to go directly into the brain." But he admits that it "may turn us all into permanent couch potatoes because we then need not travel anywhere. We can experience anything, learn anything . . . just lying on the couch."

While making highly advanced wireless handsets ubiquitous and integrating highly sophisticated technologies with our bodies are fascinating ideas, Martin Cooper, chairman and CEO, ArrayComm, and former Motorola engineer credited with designing the first cellular phone for that company, believes that the industry must get its priorities straight. He offers this advice to all players: "This industry has gotten caught up with letting technology lead it. In every other industry, people identify a social need and then ask how they can make a product to meet that need. What you end up with are useful things. In our industry, people start with a technology and then go looking for an application."