The Wireless Web: How to Develop and Execute a Winning Wireless Strategy [Hardcover]

Bryan P. Bergeron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 21, 2001

If the 1990s were the decade when everyone got a cell phone, then the 2000s will see folks using wireless applications for everything from surfing the Net to checking the refrigerator. Wireless used to be about just cell phones, but now everything is looking at going wireless. Announcements of mobile devices, wireless connectivity options, and things that are smarter than they have any right to be are the core of this year's rage. Follow the spectrum of wireless coverage - e-mail on the Palm, cell phone browsers, and nets that connect every gadget in your home. Tech companies are promising that we'll never have to be alone, ever again. We'll be forever connected to the ultimate power, that supreme cybergrid in the sky, by way of our Palm/Pocket/Handspring PDA. Besides phones, developers will spend plenty of time discussing wireless services for providing what has become the holy grail of the Net business: high-speed Internet access. Some of the hot topics: developing text-based Web browsers, delivering real-time stock quotes, and improving access to news, weather forecasts and electronic commerce. The big difference? Wireless executives want to deliver all those services to screens smaller than the average business card. They're also operating in a market where users - most of whom already have access to Web-enabled PCs - pay by the minute. The wireless movement caught mainstream America's attention with the largest initial public offering in US history, when AT&T Wireless Group raised a record US$10.6 billion through an offering of 360 million shares. The explosion of wireless technology and broadband connections should be a boon to businesses that broadcast live and archived events to PCs, TVs, set-top boxes, handheld computers and other wireless devices. Exclusive and compelling content is what draws people to a site. Businesses are already beginning to gauge the market for applications for next-generation mobile phones, high-speed wireless Internet services, and devices for networking household appliances. Bluetooth, a developing wireless standard for linking Internet-connected mobile computers, mobile phones and handheld devices, will be a prominent theme. About 1,300 companies are involved in developing Bluetooth specifications, including IBM, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft and Motorola. This book is an introduction to the "next big thing" in the world of e-commerce: wireless. It provides e-business executives with a foundation in wireless Web technology - from a business perspective - and a roadmap of how they can develop and execute a winning wireless strategy for their company. It discusses the domestic wireless market, as well as the Eurasian advantages. It identifies the key players and the technology behind the wonder of wireless. Each chapter ends with a condensed executive summary section that distills the chapter into three or four paragraphs. A sister web site will be created, providing the reader with links to the latest information related to wireless e-commerce.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Practical, Profitable Techniques to Secure a Stronghold in the Wireless Revolution

Wireless Web services are changing the way businesses and consumers interact with the Internet, with the marketplace, and with each other. The Wireless Web reveals in clear, non-technical language how you can develop and execute wireless strategies that complement your existing business efforts, strengthen relationships with your best customers­­and capitalize on the many possibilities in today's wireless technology revolution.

Praise for The Wireless Web

"Bryan Bergeron's book The Wireless Web provides a thorough and well-researched overview of the complex technological landscape surrounding the mobile Internet. The book also provides advice on how an enterprise should embrace these emerging technologies to competitive advantage."
­­Steven Peck
Worldwide Program Manager, Mobile Financial Services
Hewlett Packard

"Mr Bergeron compellingly captures the essence of the tremendous opportunities which result from the 'untethering' of the Web through wireless technologies, and then goes on to provide solid how-to advice to the executive seeking to build business around those opportunities. I recommend it highly."
­­Richard Bravman
Senior Vice President
GM Wireless Systems, Symbol

"The Wireless Web is a valuable guide for those participating in the race for the 'Wireless Wallet.' This book will help executives understand the core technical and economic constructs behind this vision."
­­Jim Balsillie
Chairman and Co-CEO
Research In Motion

"The Wireless Web is a practical, solution-oriented book, with just enough technology to allow an intelligent decision maker to make an informed choice. It provides an overview of the most relevant technologies in enough depth for the reader to understand the business implications of the technology."
­­From the Preface

The marriage of the Web and wireless communications technology impacts virtually every business on the globe. The Wireless Web reveals how it impacts your business, and explains in clear, easy-to-understand terms what you can do­­starting today­­to help your business gain access to the growing pool of wireless Web customers.

Written for non-technical executives and managers, The Wireless Web details how to take advantage of wireless Web possibilities in a clear, straightforward manner, explaining the key concepts and technologies involved. For ease of use and reference, this introduction to "the next big thing" in the world of eCommerce is divided into three sections:

• Part I ­ Ether Business­­Provides an overview of the wireless industry from a non-technological, business perspective, exploring the moneymaking potential for wireless commerce
• Part II ­ Wireless Wonders­­Provides a basic overview of the technologies relevant to the Web and wireless communications, allowing ebusiness executives to communicate with IT peers and vendors
• Part III ­ Convergence­­Explores the convergence and synergy of wireless technologies and the Web­­particularly the eBusiness opportunities­­from technologic, economic, political, legal, and social perspectives

For both business and personal applications, wireless technology­­already firmly entrenched in Europe and Asia­­is just now making its mark in the United States. The Wireless Web explains how wireless technologies will change our entire business environment, and how companies of every type, in every arena and industry, can begin now to build the necessary foundations to take advantage of this exciting new competitive tool.

About the Author

Bryan Bergeron has 20 years of practical business experience, as principal in several technology companies. His first software company, Home Health Software, developed and marketed several "firsts" in the computer industry. He is the recipient of numberous grants and awards for research and business development, and is on the SBIR's Review Board. He currently sits on the board of several technology companies, is the president of Archetype Technologies, Inc., a technology consulting firm, and Chief Scientist of Kurzweil Technologies, Inc. He lectures nationally on intellectual property, technology, and the integration of technology in the workplace. In addition to holding a medical degree and having completed a postdoctoral fellowship in informatics at Harvard/MIT, he teaches a business course on The Future of Information Technology, a graduate course for students at the Harvard graduate schools and MIT. He has written extensively on communications technology - on topics ranging from military defense systems, antenna design, digital signal processing, solid state component design, and wireless communications protocols, to the practical applications of surface acoustic wave devices and solid-state poer supply design - from a variety of perspectives, including future trends of technology. He has edited and contributed numberous chapters and articles in the ARRL Handbook, ARRL RFI Handbook, Communications Quarterly, Ham Radio, and QST, in which he specializes in making leading-adge technology understandable to non-technical readers, and for which he as won several awards. He is also editor in chief of e.MD and the author of The Eternal E-Customer: How Emotionally Intelligent Interfaces Can Create A Long-Lasting Customer

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies (May 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071373594
• ISBN-13: 978-0071373593
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,129,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A complete Guide to Wireless, August 16, 2001

By 

Lukas Cudrigh (Sausalito, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wireless Web: How to Develop and Execute a Winning Wireless Strategy (Hardcover)

In just a few years the Internet has revolutionized the way we do business. Email, online shopping and digital music downloaded from the Internet are now integral parts of our everyday lives. Technology aware companies have now turned to wireless web for the next big leap in commerce and communication. The race is on for deploying cutting-edge wireless technology.

As a business and technology consultant I am often asked by clients to provide some guidelines on how to proceed in this new and fast moving industry. Is trading stocks using a wireless PDA really a secure transaction and are electronic coupons delivered to customers via cell phones a technical feasible marketing solution? What communications provider should I use when connecting my sales force via WAP based browsers to a wireless CRM solution? And should we look to Europe and Japan for the future in wireless communication, or will it turn out to be another bursting bubble as we have experienced with too many dot.com business ventures?

"The Wireless Web", unlike so many other books covering technology topics, provides an easy to read and well-structured roadmap on how to develop a winning wireless strategy. Bergeron starts off explaining the history of this industry and it's economic drivers and then provides an overview of the current state of technologies, the various systems, protocols and technical standards used in the US and compares them to the more cohesive and further developed Japanese and European technologies. The latter part of the book focuses on the future, introducing the reader to opportunities and potential risks wireless technologies will offer as well as technical and political limitations it will face as this technology matures He closes with a well structured guideline on how to develop a wireless strategy of any scale.

In summary, this book will familiarize the reader with this new and dynamic industry and provide the knowledge required to develop, communicate, and execute a successful wireless strategy. Although written for the non-technical executive, I recommend this book to every one confronted with wireless technologies, the corporate executive implementing a wireless enterprise information portal as well as the cell phone user confronted with evaluating roaming charges, communication protocols and coverage areas when selecting a calling plan. This book definitely deserves a place on the bookshelf of any technologist.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wireless Pitfalls, June 27, 2001

By 

emily pichard (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wireless Web: How to Develop and Execute a Winning Wireless Strategy (Hardcover)

Wireless Web is a refreshing kind of book. I'm tired of books that introuduce a new technology, paint a rosy picture, and then leave the reader dangling three months later. This isn't one of those books. It tells it like it is. Wireless isn't easy. In fact, implementing a Wireless Web solution is nearly at the bleeding edge of what's possible, as the author states. There are traps at every corner, and you'd better know what to expect. In this respect, the Wireless Web provides a map of the "speed bumps" along the way. If you're going to give it a go on the Wireless Web, you'd better have this book or some other roadmap with you.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Guide to the Wireless Web!, June 2, 2001

By 

Oliver Cudrigh (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wireless Web: How to Develop and Execute a Winning Wireless Strategy (Hardcover)

Having just put down Bergeron's last book, "The Eternal E-Customer", I was interested to see his visionary take on the wireless web. I wasn't disappointed. "The Wireless Web" compellingly captures the multitude of opportunities which the unethering of the Web affords. What I appreciated most about this book (and Bergeron's style as in his previous book) was the practical advice on how any executive can take advantage of these wireless opportunities. Bergeron succinctly explains how a company can embrace this new technology to their competitive advantage. Five stars!