I can vividly recall a colleague at IBM showing me a beta of Mosaic with this file containing an animated space plane flying through the landscape of an imaginary planet. I'm not sure if I remember this because of the animation or because of Mosaic, but it sure left an impression. In early 1999, an old high school and college friend who was working at Aether Systems showed me a wireless stock trading application they were developing for the Palm . That started me thinking about the possibilities for the wireless internet. The two things I find compelling about wireless are ubiquity and opportunity.
Wireless phones are everywhere.
Throughout the US and the world, more people have mobile phones than have PCs or TVs. This will take some time to get resolved and it needs to be done right to avoid the problems that faced the online advertising space. The carriers also have significant interest and control in this area. Wireless advertising is only as good as size and reach of the medium. I think the inflection point for the wireless Web comes when we get to 2.5G and 3G networks.