August 1999 - Mark Anderson discusses the Wireless Services Corp. and XYPoint Corp. partnership on ABCNEWS.Com.

By the iBook
Commentary

By Mark Anderson
Special to ABCNEWS.Com

APPLE’S INKWELL

A couple of years ago, in Strategic News Service, I forecast what I called the Inkwell Computer: “Like the inkwells (and bottles) of another generation, every student will have one, about the shape of a lunchbox but smaller. They will attach to the school Intranet (and then the Internet) via wireless or infrared, and will be ruggedized and fun.”
     Sure enough, Apple leader Steve Jobs pulled the company’s new portable out of the hat at MacWorld last week. Predictably named the iBook, it’s essentially the first Inkwell to hit the streets. Aimed at the home and education markets, it is rugged, high-design (iMac-colored in bright tangerine or blueberry), and has onboard wireless networking, with associated 10-user net kits that bring groups of schoolkids onto the Net or the classroom server.
     Nice going, Steve.

FAST? YOU WANT FAST?

Two weeks ago, Lucent announced a new (airborne) laser-based “fixed wireless” technology designed to complement fiber capacities in the age-old last-mile/local phone service solution.
     The company’s new WaveStar OpticAir system can shoot at rooftop or window receivers using Dense Wave Division Multiplexing technology that is also key to increasing data densities in fiber. “Lucent soon will be able to provide the power of fiber optics just about anywhere — with or without fiber,” says optical networking group president Gerry Butters.
     The system has the potential of carrying up to 10 gbps, the company says.
     Yes, that’s 10,000,000,000 bits per second. That would be about 5,000 times faster than anything on the market today. The part I like the best: using DWDM through the air, and extending the optic net beyond fiber.
     Arthur Schawlow and Charles H. Townes, the inventors of the laser, would be proud.

THE NEW NET ASSISTANT

Two announcements last week seem to herald the next steps in the creation of what I like to call the Net Assistant — a cell phone connected via a clear broadband digital channel to a supercomputer on the Net, using voice recognition and text-to-speech as an interface, and acting as a personal agent in accessing Web resources worldwide, carrying out tasks, and assisting with strategy.
     First, XYPOINT and Wireless Services of Seattle/Bellevue announced a technical joint venture focused around XY’s WebWireless technology that will provide voice-responsive Web-based services and content (using voice recognition and text-to-voice) to cell phone users. The concept includes a one-button secure response feature, linked to the XY’s SmartMail and related e-commerce offerings. (Full disclosure: XY is currently a client of mine.)
     Long known for providing time-sensitive content to cell phone users, Wireless Services is now joining forces with fellow ex-McCaw/AT&T Wireless execs at XY (a leading provider of location-based cell data). The focus here is on implementing cell phone-based e-commerce through proprietary transaction technology, in areas such as stock-trading and auctions.
     The week also brought interesting news of a new Palo Alto, Calif., startup called TellMe, with employees and other funding partners drawn from both sides of the Microsoft/Netscape browser wars. Ex-Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale is a founding board member; another is Peter Currie, also of Netscape and of Barksdale’s new venture firm (both came over from McCaw together). Microsoft hall-of-famer Brad Silverberg, while still consulting to the MS mother ship, is an investor and board member.
     The company is not announcing its plans, except to say “We are going to be taking the Internet and applying it to the telephone to fundamentally improve how the telephone works,” according to founder/CEO (and ex-Netscaper) Mike McCue.
     My guess: they are going to try to build the Net Assistant.

Mark Anderson is the president of Technology Alliance Partners, which provides consulting to telecommunications and computing firms. The Next Files, excerpted from Anderson’s Strategic News Service newsletter, appears every Monday.