Wireless Future -> What is the wireless future? 

A lot has been said about the wireless future and there are thousands of articles and reports written in the recent past. But there is no single view point as to what will be the wireless future, who will succeed and when will this happen? This report is to find out answers to these basic questions.

A simple search in google for wireless future returns close to around 6 million relevant pages. Therefore, there is no doubt that this topic has gained lot of interest recently. An obvious method to start this research would be to find out the basic definitions of what is wireless and what is mobile. The DIR (2002) defines ‘wireless’ as follows.

Wireless refers to the method of transferring information between a computing device, such as a personal data assistant (PDA), and a 

data source, such as an agency database server, without a physical connection. Not all wireless communications technologies are mobile. For example, lasers are used in wireless data transfer between buildings, but cannot be used in mobile communications at this time.

Therefore, it is not necessary that all wireless technologies are mobile. Mobile on the other hand refers to anything that is not fixed or restricted to a desktop or a fixed device. The DIR (2002) defines ‘mobile’ as follows:

Mobile simply describes a computing device that is not restricted to a desktop. A mobile device may be a PDA, a “smart” cell phone or Web phone, a laptop computer, or any one of numerous other devices that allow the user to complete computing tasks without being tethered, or connected, to a network. Mobile computing does not necessarily require wireless communication. In fact, it may not require communication between devices at all