Hooray! Pocket your PC

In the late nineties analysts predicted the latent potential of mobile and

wireless applications market. Forrester Research estimated the wireless software

market size to reach $ 90 billion by 2003. When handhelds were expected to

overtake PCs as computing and access devices many companies like Oracle,

Microsoft, IBM and CA rushed into building applications for mobile devices. Web

portals, wireless LANs and the spread of CDMA and GSM-based mobile telephone

networks lured the mobile and wireless software market segment.

However a reality check revealed that this market did not take-off as

predicted. Non-affordability of handheld computing devices was one of the
reasons. Disparity of standards in mobile networks, the 2.5G vs. 3G debate and

non-availability of applications were other reasons.






Clearly, the opportunity and the trends in this segment were over-hyped. The
mobile and wireless software market had not been defined distinctly. Mobile

software and wireless software are entirely separate domains. According to

Gartner, "it is a collection of fragmented markets, each with its own

players, target buyers and rules, still full of fast-moving opportunities for

large and small".

The applications varied from a stand-alone software to navigate the menus of

a mobile handset, a PDA calendar to e-mail connectivity software or sales force

automation software on a PDA to connect to an ERP backbone. To lessen the

complexity, wireless applications are broadly categorized into three. Mobile

applications that run on PDAs, cellphones and specialized devices like

intelligent barcode scanners and can stay online or offline as desired. Wireless

applications run over wireless networks like infrared, wireless LAN, Bluetooth

or a GSM/ CDMA-based cellular network. And wireless Internet applications are

characterized by a microbrowser on a PDA or a smart-phone that is always

connected to the Internet. Business applications that run on PDAs and similar

specialized devices are one of the oldest and still demand high investments. In

India the trend is fast emerging in industries like pharma, FMCG and insurance.

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