Monday, July 1, 2002		Feature

Wireless still has miles to go
Sonia Kolesnikov

WIRELESS enterprise services still have some way to go in Asia, as, in fact, in the rest of the world. Though deployment of services has happened in some countries, those are mainly trials and pilots tests, rather than full fledged roll out, and at this stage wireless continues to be very much an emerging market, analysts from a US-based research and consultancy firm, IDC, said.

Speaking at a breakfast presentation, Davina Yeo, IDC research manager of mobile eBusiness, noted that these services have concentrated on a few vertical applications, like travel or banking. "The IT belt tightening that we've seen last year and this year, has pushed back wireless projects a couple of quarters at least," Yeo said.

"We still believe it is an important channel to conduct business. But today, there is a lack of education about it and companies don't know the benefits they can derive from using the services," she said.

In most case, wireless is viewed as "nice, but not a necessity yet" by most companies. Even those that have started implementing wireless services are complaining that the payback of what has been achieved "is not there yet," and many are disappointed.

According to a poll by IDC, only 42 per cent of respondents in Australia and New Zealand had started to implement or have plans to adopt wireless services. This compares with 35 per cent in South Asia and 32 per cent in Greater China and South Korea. "And in most cases, those which are responding positively just have plans," Yeo noted.

The main reason is that companies do not see a need for such services, believe the cost is too high, and do not see such priority as high enough yet, IDC said. "Companies will only move as fast as the weakest link, which for the time being is the technology. Moving forward, it will meet consumers demand and be flexible to the products," Yeo said, forecasting market acceptance by 2003-2004.

Gary Hong, an IDC product manager for communications research, pointed that this year's cellular subscribers in China are expected to reach 230 million, while they will reach 30 million in South Korea, 54 million ASEAN countries and 15 million in Australia and New Zealand.

He noted that only Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore would achieve a penetration rate of more than 80 per cent for mobile phones, followed by Australia and South Korea with a level of 60 to 70 per cent.

"Penetration rates are increasing. But at the same time, users expectation is becoming more sophisticated. The 'anytime-anywhere' is fast becoming a cliché," Hong said.