While mobile commerce on phones is a fascinating
discussion, it's pretty clear now that it's going to take a
while to see the widespread proliferation of it on small devices,
especially in the general wide-area (WAN) wireless environment. But one
thing that is happening now is the exploding market for wireless LAN
(Local Area Network), both on a corporate and a consumer-services
front.
A wireless LAN is essentially a "bubble" of
high-speed wireless coverage that is installed in any local environment.
This could include your office, coffee shops, hotels and restaurants. It
can be implemented with a Bluetooth or an 802.11 network. Wireless LANs
are relatively easy and inexpensive to buy and install - and they work
now.
Besides having connect speeds of anywhere from 384k up to
11Mbps (with 802.11b) they offer reliable, instant, always-on access to
the Internet with no worries about wireless coverage. This is especially
valuable considering that most wide-area wireless IP networks such as
CDPD and paging networks have a very difficult time penetrating into
buildings. While 2.5G and 3G are expected to improve on in-building
coverage of wireless WANs, the near-term answer for most business is
would appear to be wireless LAN.
Nowhere does the need for fast,
reliable connections become more apparent than when you're
traveling - most especially in hotels. I stay at various hotels when I
travel, and, like many others, I can't stand the dial-up Internet
connections - nor the heroin-like rates I pay for this narrow-band
service. I feel so . . . so dirty . . . when I walk out of a hotel with
a $100 bill for having used the Internet. Furthermore, it's a pain
to connect to corporate e-mail. And walking into a hotel and having to
wait in line for my check-in while calling all sorts of extensions for
different hotel services isn't exactly a joyful experience.
I'm happy to say that wireless LAN can solve a lot of these
problems for all of us.
Polyphonic InformationOrchestration
Classwave Wireless is a company that
specializes in Bluetooth and 802.11 WLAN products. The heart of
Classwave's solution is its Polyphony Server. The idea is to create
a single software platform that can distinguish and manage information
seamlessly between the LAN and WAN on any device. Classwave is
installing its solutions primarily into the hospitality industry. Using
Polyphony Server to remove the complexity of creating and adapting
wireless services and applications, managers can enhance the type of
information and value-added services they offer to mobile workers and
customers.
Recently, Classwave signed a deal with Starwood
Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (which owns W hotels and Sheraton among
others) to enable Bluetooth solutions within the hotels. The initial
solutions will consist of access points that are wirelessly connected to
a central services network through Bluetooth. Hotel guests will be able
to check in, as well as request room service, reservations, and other
hotel services through their laptops or other Bluetooth enabled devices.
Guests will also be able to connect to the Internet using the Classwave
solution.
The hotel and hospitality industry represents one of
the best vertical markets for the near-term and long-term because it has
a well-heeled, mobile audience that demands good service and is
comfortable with technology. Tom Sweeney, Classwave's CEO, was kind
enough to sit down and share some of the near- and long-term
possibilities with TheFeature.
Sweeny's first observation
was that wireless commerce is a key objective of his company's
solution. Hotels should have the ability to auto-recognize guests and
respond to their requests. While the initial focus would be on services,
the uptake of commerce is a challenge he sees the system addressing in
the mid-term. When asked about wireless advertising on Classwave's
in-hotel service, Sweeny replied that it is certainly possible to do but
he doesn't think that it would go over well with hotel
guests.
Classwave's position is that the guest should be
able to dictate the flow of information, and that is what their network
enables. He called these "permission based" services, and sees
them as being the bulk of the transactions users perform on the
Classwave service in a hotel.
The Really CoolStuff
Sweeney thinks that the real excitement
comes into play when guests with Bluetooth enabled PDAs and mobile
phones enter the picture. One advantage of Bluetooth is that it offers a
notification capability in the wireless network environment. If you have
preset your PDA to identify you to the network, you can check in
automatically. You can preset room preferences (the desired temperature,
for example) wake up call time, any special requests, and a host of
other options automatically, which would be implemented upon your
arrival.
An alert would be sent to the registration desk and
they could send a bellhop out to you to verify your ID and give you your
room key. As you walk up to your room, the settings you desired would be
implemented. You could check your e-mail anywhere in the building, and
you would be notified that you have new mail. You would also be able to
network with other guests and find out who is playing tennis, make
reservations, find out who is available for a game, or receive real-time
alerts for goods and services that you are interested in. Let me tell
you, I'd stay in that hotel every time.
But consumers
aren't the only ones who benefit. The enterprise does as well. Like
most people in this space, Sweeney believes that the mobile commerce
opportunity needs to achieve critical mass before it will succeed. The
opportunity for Classwave in the short term lies in the time saving from
paperless transactions, which translate into definable cost savings for
the hotel. It also gives them a distinct customer service advantage by
allowing them to offer value-added services to their mobile customers.
Obviously, the excitement generated by such a solution would
benefit them in the short term, as word of their customer service
prowess spreads among business travelers. On top of that, day-to-day
hotel supplies, maintenance, and business tasks could be automated.
Imagine the housekeeping staff having PDAs that alert them to a guests
needs or an emergency clean up that needs to happen. Sweeney indicated
that this type of customer service enhancement was at the core of
Classwave's business model, which is a sound model based upon
providing value to the hotel in its day-to-day operations.
Embracing 802.11
But
Classwave is not alone in enabling such solutions. Bluetooth itself
faces stiff challenges from 802.11 wireless LAN, which enable incredibly
fast wireless speeds with proven reliability. While they do not possess
the notification capability that Bluetooth networks do, 802.11 networks
are increasingly becoming the choice for wireless LAN solutions because
of the ease of deployment and the network speed. In anticipation of
this, Sweeney indicated that Classwave is not tied solely to
Bluetooth.
I believe that both technologies can and will coexist
to provide the optimum user experience, and he agreed, citing the
example that Bluetooth would provide notification and connectivity
whenever a user was not within line-of-sight of the 802.11 hub, but also
would act like a "wireless USB" cable for connecting multiple
devices to the network hub. Additionally, the core software technology
that Classwave makes supports 802.11 deployments as well. For a user,
this means that he or she could use a wireless device in the outside
world using WCDMA or some other 3G means of connecting up, and then when
they walk into the hotel, the Bluetooth connection would take over and
connect them to the Hotel Services network and everything contained
therein.
Companies that are offering similar value propositions
are MobileStar and hereUare in the 802.11 segment, and big fish like
Symbol Technologies are in the game with their own 802.11 solutions.
Companies in this space will have to be careful not to bite off more
than they can chew, trying to be all things to all people.
Classwave's focused approached to supplying the hospitality
industry (and other vertical industries) positions it as an influential
player in this emerging market.
In summary, wireless LANs -
carrying services related to the environment in which mobile users find
themselves - may very well be one of the keys to mobile commerce
succeeding. Both from a user perspective as well as a realistic,
deployment standpoint it offers an opportunity for transaction-based
wireless data to happen in the immediate near-term-and an immediate
reason for users to take advantage of it.
While the ability to
buy a CD using my wireless phone may be a neat idea, it's not a
compelling prospect. But if I can preset my preferences and check-in
information on my PDA, and select a travel profile that activates those
preferences and sets them up when I walk into a hotel . . . that is a
service I would use. Not only would the commerce opportunities that flow
from this be interesting to end-users, but they would also help
condition users to be more comfortable using their mobile device in the
wide area environment. Which in turn would help open up the channel for
wide area mobile commerce in the way that we all envision it happening.
It is clear that wireless LAN offers a lot of interesting
possibilities to mobile commerce, but it also offers a clear near-term
value that can be leveraged toward making mobile commerce a reality a
lot more quickly than previously thought.
Holly Bartlett is a freelance journalist covering wireless
technology.