A confluence of technological leaps in devices, networks, and applications is setting the stage
for wireless to change our lives the way personal computers (PCs) did in the 1980s and Internet in
the late 1990s. A measured approach to service adoption and pricing yields revenues of nearly
US$15 billion in 5 years, and US$60 billion in 10 years in the US alone (Lundberg & Zucker,
2000a). Extrapolated to other regions, cumulatively, the mobile wireless business represents an
opportunity size that is enough to make the business-world tremble.
To capitalize on the opportunity, however, the stakeholders investing in mobile wireless have to
assess a wide landscape of technical and competitive issues, including the rationale and longevity
of the current slowdown in telecommunications industry, surrounding the seemingly easy task of
moving a bit of content from a content source to an omnipresent mobile wireless device. Mobile
wireless entrepreneurs have to understand the meaning and structure of the entire mobile wireless