...scars garnered during wild and wooly dotcom days--aren't so quick to chase what might seem like a PDA pipe dream.

It doesn't help that Wi-Fi--the flighty young ingenue of mobile content delivery--garners all the headlines with deals between cell phone and coffee superpowers that promise fast connectivity and caffeine on every block. In reality, even consumers willing to wait ten minutes for the privilege of paying four" bucks for a latte find $30 a month fees for spotty coverage hard to swallow. But the truth is that, while Wi-Fi does play a role in the mobilizing of content and communication, a distinction between Wi-Fi and mobile must be made in order for mobile content to be taken seriously by a savvy and demanding mobile workforce.

Mobile should also not be limited to elaborate new phones and PDAs that sport keyboards and colorful displays. In fact, the PDA's great uncle laptop and second cousin cell phone both still bear the brunt of the actual mobile work getting done today. However, these young upstart multimedia devices are beginning to come Into their own. And, if they can shed the half-baked stigma of Wi-Fi and never-quite-there Bluetooth, these devices [like the Sony Clies my colleagues and I used to evaluate mobile content--see sidebars] might actually enable the next generation of mobile content for the enterprise.

That said: Don't get too excited just yet. Because, as Scott Smith at Gale so aptly put it, content producers are still saying: "Show me the business model."

It is true, content developers aren't tripping over themselves to pump out handheld-specific content. While certaIn niches flourish [see Miller's "Content Goes to the Doctor" in this issue], general business content has been slow to follow suit. Many of the big content players--like Dialog, ProQuest, and LexisNexis--don't have specific mobile offerings, though their products could, of course, be accessed if you have a subscription and your mobile device has Internet connectivity. But without having the content conceived of in the context of a 2"x2" screen, usability generally plummets.

LAYING DOWN THE LAW

There are signs of life, however. Products like Westlaw Wireless clearly serve the needs of the legal vertical and are developed with small screen sizes and lower bandwidth limitations in mind. Imagine a courtroom setting where your opponent argues based on a case that rings...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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