Today’s telecom industry woes will trigger explosive growth in wireless information services and the subsequent fielding of distributed software applications. According to new research from Kinetic Information, telecom carriers will turn to wireless technology because it is “the only profitable game left in town,” and software vendors will quickly leverage that infrastructure to deliver solutions to the “small screen.” The result will be a global market in 2005 worth approximately $12 billion for wireless data services, and $1.5 billion for wireless interoperability software.
Telecom service providers will roll out new wireless services and support improved mobile computing standards because they have no other choice. “Thanks to their recent financial and political struggles, carriers today are desperate to show their customers and the Street that they still have upside potential,” said Kinetic Information president Steve Weissman. “Wireless computing is their best short-term bet because it’s new, value-added, and chock full of profit potential.” The company cites falling bandwidth costs and the rollout of public wireless LANs as indicators of possible future performance.
Kinetic Information believes software vendors will leverage this new wireless capacity to capitalize on the accelerating use of PDAs and cell phones as Web access devices. “Unlocking the potential here requires that these devices interface not just with the Web, but with enterprise business processes, workflow, and data, and do so from anyplace, at any time,” the company writes. “Telecom carriers and software companies must, and will, work together to ensure their offerings interoperate both inside and outside customer organizations, and make intelligent use of network capacity and device capability.”
