Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Don't believe the Wi-Fi hype-

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003 18:01:16 -0400

Don't believe the Wi-Fi hype, it's all about the cell phone, says Business 2.0. 
New applications, such as ringtones, games and other downloads for wireless
devices, are taking the market by storm. Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe says that
there are 1 billion cell phone subscribers, and they are the ones that are going
to say where wireless goes in the future.
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The Next Big Thing...The Cell Phone

Forget Wi-Fi. The real wireless revolution is being driven by the cell phone --
and is already creating rich opportunities for huge players and small startups
alike.

By Rafe Needleman, Michael V. Copeland, Om Malik, July 2003 Issue

In a home recording studio near San Francisco, Del the Funky Homosapien's
chart-busting rap tune "Phoney Phranchise" comes pumping out of a silver Kyocera
(KYO) 3225 cell phone lying on a cramped desk. The little device is almost hidden
by the computer gear, guitars, and mixing boards that surround it. Chris Dunn
listens intently, then groans. 

"It just doesn't work," he says, snapping his gaze back to a laptop screen filled
with audio mixing tracks. He fiddles with some of the digital sliders and plays
the song again through the cell phone with the bass boosted an octave. Dunn sways
to the groove, and a smile spreads across his face.  "That totally works now," he
says.

With his sideburns and Cat in the Hat striped socks, Dunn, 31, looks like the
rocker he is. He's in a band, but he also has a day job as audio production
manager for Faith West Inc., converting songs, sounds, and phrases into ringtones
that cell-phone users can download wirelessly over the Internet. "Phoney
Phranchise" is one of some 950 ringtones offered by Faith West's Modtones service
and its partner Verizon Wireless (VZ) for about $1 apiece. 

In less than a year, the venture has attracted more than 1 million customers --
making it just a bit player in a huge new global industry. In the roughly three
years since downloadable ringtones became widely available, consumers have spent
an astonishing $1.8 billion on them. That's one of the faster zero-to-$1.8 billion
sprints in business history.

You say you want a revolution? The wireless revolution is here, right now.  It's
presenting untold new opportunities for fortune and glory. But forget the hype and
hysteria over Wi-Fi and other small-scale schemes for building wireless local area
networks. As Dunn and his ringtone cadre demonstrate, the great engine powering us
into the new wireless age is, of all things, the good old cell phone.

Make no mistake, Wi-Fi is indeed a promising technology for wirelessly connecting
to the Web, and it has a role to play in the revolution. But as Bob Metcalfe, the
inventor of the Ethernet, observes, "There are 1 billion cell-phone users. That
number means that the cellular people will have a lot more to say about what the
wireless future looks like than anybody else."

INSTRUMENT OF CHANGE

Why cell phones are the real engine of the wireless revolution.  Cell-phone usage
has surged relentlessly, and the number of subscribers to high-speed
third-generation (3G) cellular services will double next year.

http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,50167,00.html

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