Clarifying the technology was the theme for this session, separating the issues between mobile platforms and wireless access. Currently, the mobile platform is a laptop computer or a PDA. Bruce Brownson, Directory Downloads, Inc., highlighted market research showing one third of PDA buying is in the institutional market, particularly the Blackberry PDA which has a miniscule keyboard. He expects the PDA to evolve into the Smartphone which will be a personal device, with the full functionality of today's PDA plus telephony, as well as additional capabilities, including MP3 and extensive memory. Given that the number of cell phones is growing rapidly and are replaced on a two year cycle, these new devices will dominate the market in two to four years, so publishers need to plan now to take advantage of the opportunities. Directory Downloads focuses on building contact databases that can be downloaded in Microsoft Outlook, a standard Microsoft application, then additional software can be used to move information from the desktop to the mobile platform, freeing the data from dependence on a specific operating system. This is a very solid approach, allowing the market to evolve!

Wireless access is crucial to mobile workers, "people on the go" who are working without desks and a fixed location. For publishers, this implies a Web connection, either slow through cell phone or local wireless network. Keith Yerian, bGlobal LLC, built an application to download real estate listings to PDA's for use by agents. The data is priced higher for the desktop version which can be used for market research purposes, but at an affordable $50 for individual use on the PDA. The primary limitation is the size of the screen limiting the number of fields, such as directory names, addresses and phone numbers, so advertising is not feasible. PDA's do have a significant advantage with speed and battery life, and many will now accept a memory stick for work flow software and applications. Electronics companies are going to develop new gadgets, so publishers can benefit by taking advantage of trends in new technology..... Who would have thought a camera phone would be so useful in the real estate and home improvement business, a truly mobile population!