Written by: Eric Peterson

Summer 1979. I had recently returned home from my freshman year at college and begun working at a summer job for the city’s Public Works department. My first assignment was to clear the community cemetery of flowers in the wake of Memorial day. For the next two weeks, I would systematically march up and down row after row after row of headstones, stopping and stooping in front of each to fill my arms with wilted and decaying flowers and then cart them off to an adjacent refuse pit. Certainly, the setting was serene, but the assignment was dismally monotonous--I desperately sought some form of stimulation that would help carry me through the day. What I needed, I decided, was music. Accordingly, I connected a pair of headphones to a rather cumbersome radio/cassette player (approximate dimensions: 40 cm wide, 25 cm high, and 10 cm deep) that I could just coax into a college backpack/book bag that I wore on my back. “Wouldn’t it be great,” I thought to myself, “if someone could make a mini-player that clipped onto your belt or fit in your pocket?” Little did I know that Sony had, just two months earlier, announced its first Walkman--a cute little stereo cassette player called the Soundabout. I got my first look at one a year later in Tokyo.

Summer 1995. I had more or less mastered the basics of my new PDA--an Apple Newton Message Pad--and began exploring some of its more advanced features and capabilities. For one thing, this device contained two slots for PCMCIA cards--for example, for modems and extra memory, or for connecting to a GPS device or a bar-code reader. As I considered the possibilities, my imagination ran wild. “Wouldn’t it be great,” I thought, “if I could plug in a wireless modem and connect to a data network? Why, I would be connected and online at all times!” Wholly unbeknownst to me at the time, a solution was already in the making. Best of all, one that is much bolder and promises to deliver much more than the basic messaging services I had envisioned.

Summer 2003. I was on assignment to monitor a two-day conference in Anytown, USA. Ordinarily, I’m fairly careful about what I eat, but whenever I have the opportunity to visit the USA, I make it a point to order an American-style pizza (thin crust, extra cheese, pork sausage and fresh mushrooms). This was my first stay in Anytown, so I didn’t know my way around. No problem. I stepped out onto the sidewalk outside my hotel, slipped on my earpiece, pushed a button to open a dialog with my phone/PDA (in my coat pocket), and spoke:

Me: “Computer, find pizza restaurants within a ten-block radius of my location.”

PDA: “Three restaurants located. Reading list: 1. Guido’s Italian Pizzas, range 600 meters. 2. Pizza Palace, range 735 meters. 3. The Stuffed Olive, range 817 meters.” (I consider these choices, and then continue.)

Me: “The Stuffed Olive, audio directions.” (Note: I could also have requested visual directions via a map interface on my PDA.)

PDA: “Turn right and proceed along Presidential Drive to Franklin Avenue, range 43 meters.” (The computer monitors my movements.) “Turn right on Franklin Avenue and proceed 782 meters.” (Haven’t I walked far enough? Maybe I made a wrong turn?)

Me: “Computer, I think I’m lost. The Stuffed Olive, audio directions.”

PDA: “Proceed straight ahead on Franklin Avenue, range 38 meters.”

Me: “Oh, there it is! Good. Computer off.”

The Bluetooth earpiece I wore in the above scenario has already been announced and will be available on the market in mid-2000 (to learn more about the making of Bluetooth devices, read Ericsson’s Bluetooth modules). Ericsson’s T28, T28 World, and R320 phones already include voice recognition capability and I’m betting we’ll see a great deal more of this technology by 2003.

At Telecom 99, I saw a host of “third-generation” mobile terminals, which implies that manufacturers believe in and are gearing up for the mobile Internet. The immense popularity of i-Mode (Japan) and Mobitex (North America) also implies that the mobile Internet--like the Internet before it--has the potential to turn our world on its ear (see Mobile Internet--An industry-wide paradigm shift?). Ericsson has staked out its strategy (see Network evolution the Ericsson way) and developed an extensive portfolio of technical solutions (for example, see AXI 540 router and the public IP network edge and Real-time routers for wireless networks), including those for mobile positioning systems (see Ericsson’s mobile location solution). We have also taken the initiative to create an applications alliance, to help developers to get their ideas to market.

[First published in Ericsson Review no. 04, 1999]