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Games without frontiers …
Expect to see more and more folks working and gaming while on their feet.
According to Gartner Dataquest, a unit of Gartner Inc. in San Jose, Calif., mobility-focused applications and consumer-based data services and devices will drive the North American wireless data market to grow from 7.3 million subscribers last year to 137.5 million subscribers in 2005.
The drive to adopt wireless data within the enterprise is being spurred by the desire to increase the mobility of work forces coupled with additional competitive pressures, the research company said. On the consumer end, higher-speed services rolling out in the 2002-to-2003 time frame will promote the use of wirelessly equipped gaming devices.
… but then on the other handheld …
Fun games or no, enterprise decision makers are spending conservatively on wireless applications because the wireless functionality being touted by most service providers considerably overreaches most customers basic wireless needs, according to a recent study by InfoTech, a global consultancy based in Parsippany, N.J.
According to the study, enterprises are finally expected to decide this year how to get started with wireless applications, with initial deployment slated for next year. Wireless expenditures, as a percentage of overall IT budgets, will remain small, the study said. They are expected, however, to jump from last years 3.7 percent to 7.7 percent next year.