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Cellphones: Not Just for Talking Anymore

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DQI Bureau
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Until recently, about all you could do with a wireless phone was make a call.

Even as the capabilities of handsets grew, you were stuck with whatever

functions your wireless carrier put into the phone. You couldn’t add

applications, and customization was mostly limited to a choice of ring tones.

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That’s changing fast. In addition to color displays, faster processors, and

more memory, the latest handsets let you download software programs and

information services to your phone. The market currently consists mainly of ring

tones, screen savers, and games. Other services, however, are becoming more

widely available, including mapping and directions, traffic information, e-mail

access, sports news, and restaurant and movie guides. A company called Digital

Orchid (www.digitalorchid.com/nascartogo)

offers a novel service with real-time information about NASCAR, including a

constantly updated leaderboard during races. Such programs and services are sold

outright or as a subscription and can be charged either to the phone bill or a

credit card. Corporations also are showing interest in creating custom phone

applications for their mobile workers, such as one that lets field workers for a

mining company remotely monitor seepage from settling points.

Writing programs for phones is much more complicated than for PCs or for Palm

or Pocket PC handhelds. Designing software customized for the dozens of handset

types isn’t practical. And carriers, worried about tech-support problems and

applications that could cause trouble on their networks, are fussy about what

they will allow.

Sun Microsystems and Qualcomm have developed rival systems that address both

problems. Sun’s Java 2 Micro Edition provides a common programming environment

for many different handsets while preventing downloaded applications from doing

anything bad to the built-in phone software or the network. Leading US carriers

delivering J2ME programs include Sprint PCS, Nextel, AT&T Wireless, and

Cingular. Qualcomm’s BREW, named in self-conscious imitation of Java, offers

similar capabilities, but with a twist.

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Qualcomm runs BREW as a turnkey service for carriers, including Verizon

Wireless and Alltel. Customers buy downloads or subscriptions from BREW, and

Qualcomm passes the billing information to the carriers–with Qualcomm keeping

a bit of the payment for its trouble.

I found Verizon’s BREW-based Get It Now service the slickest offering. I

tried it with the Motorola T720 and LG 4400 handsets. You go to the Get It Now

menu, choose your apps or subscriptions, and check out. Games typically can be

purchased outright for $4.99. Information services are sold by subscription.

Vindigo’s local directions, dining-and-entertainment information service costs

$2.99 a month, while Dow Jones’s WSJ.COM news service costs $3.99 monthly. The

cost, plus the airtime used downloading data, automatically appear on your

monthly bill–that’s ease of use and payment.

Nextel’s J2ME service, which I tried on a Motorola i95cl handset, is

clunkier. Although most applications are downloaded over the air to your phone,

you have to select them on Nextel’s Web site, and your purchases are billed

separately to a credit card. Nextel offers a number of free programs, but you

must check carefully to see which programs work with which handsets.

Small displays and the difficulty of data entry will always limit how much

phones can do. Even given the limits, the humble handset can become a game

platform and information appliance once you can get the right software into it.

By Stephen H Wildstrom

in BusinessWeek. Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

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