Mar 27 (Ch 16): Integrating Wireless Technology in Business

Wireless technologies are transforming how we live, work, and play. Handheld devices are continuing to offer additional functionality and cellular networks are advancing rapidly in their increased speed and throughput abilities. These enabling technologies are fueling widespread adoption and creation of new and innovative ways to perform business.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

16.1 Explain the business benefits of using wireless technology.
Business benefits to using wireless technology include:
• Increase productivity
• Speed delivery to market
• Reduce operating costs
• Have universal access to information and applications
• Automate business processes
• Create user convenience and timeliness
• Ability to conduct business 24x7x365

16.2 Discuss the wireless trends that benefit consumers and businesses.
• Social Networking Gets Mobilized. Mobility is added to existing Internet business models, services and behaviors, driving traffic for wireless operators. Social networking applications initially are preloaded on many mobile devices sold and later become downloadable.
• Mobile TV. Per-view or per-minute pricing for “sneaking,” a consumer tendency to watch key minutes of a sports event or drama while engaged in another activity. Sneaking leads to more regular viewing, and within 3-5 years, mobile TV will become an indispensable service.
• Multi-Function Devices Become Cheaper and More Versatile. Intense competition and margin pressure will continue in the handset market, forcing prices of third-generation (3G) handsets below $90 and making them affordable for a wide range of users.
• Location-Based Services: GPS is the location technology of choice for the wireless industry. Handset manufacturers will continue to push GPS-enabled handsets as the technology evolves from popular in-car satellite navigation systems to a broadly accepted feature in wireless phones.
• Mobile Advertising. Major brands are shifting from basic SMS marketing to more sophisticated multimedia advertising.
• Wireless Providers Move into Home Entertainment. Mobile makes headway against fixed broadband operators, who have dominated Internet and cheaper voice service provision in the home. Wi-Fi will remains the primary wireless access technology.
• Wireless Security. There is a monumental need to put strong security measures in place. This could be the year that hackers really start paying attention to millions of wireless devices, the growth in mobile data usage and vulnerable points between mobile and fixed networks.
• Enterprise Mobility. Corporations switch from phones to mobile computers for transactions, data collection and messaging for a wide variety of employees. Many voice communications processes, such as order placement and delivery notifications, dispatch operations and remote asset monitoring, continue to shift to wireless data to increase information access and field transaction volume across organizations. Many corporations will completely replace their cellular handsets with a combined voice/data device or a data-only device.

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Business Driven Technology (Customized WMU Edition)
Baltzan & Phillips.