• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 20, 2003

You'll Get A Charge Out Of This: Want to tap the next big market? No, it's not the media business per se. Nah, it's not even a high tech concept, though both advances in technological gadgetry and an expanding media universe will certainly drive this market. The big market that's just waiting to happen is batteries. I don't necessarily mean the Energizer bunny kind, but if there is one thing recent events have proven, stored energy systems become pretty vital when you're away from an outlet or when the lights simply go out.

And when did this light bulb first turn on for me? It was about three years ago when I was huddled with a group of top marketers, agency, media and technology execs who were brainstorming the future of advertising in CUBE, a post-modern conference room at MIT's renowned Media Lab. The group, which was organized by ARF research czar Gabe Samuels and University of Michigan professor of media technology Russ Neuman, spent the better part of that cold winter day in Cambridge debating the likely growth and impact of a host of then emerging technologies: broadband, personal video recorders, satellite TV and radio, PDAs, video games and plenty of computer gizmos.

While all of these seemed to have the potential to sabotage, or at least transform advertising as we know it, it wasn't until one of the MIT profs blurted out three words that the chatter in the room paused and turned in a really new direction. "What about wireless."

The academic went on, as academics often do, and painted a vivid scenario for a world where ubiquitous wireless technologies created a "seamless media environment." In such a world, he said, media content would literally follow people around from the start of their day with the ringing of their clock radio, through munching breakfast along side a PC screen, down the stairs on a PDA, into the car and just about anywhere else one might want to beam or receive bytes of media content.

The scenario was intoxicating and offered as much promise for an expansion in advertising options, as it did risks to the marketing industry. But it wasn't until the group held a smaller follow-up meeting about a year later that this vision began to hit me on a personal level. At that meeting in small conference room in Rye, New York, one of the MIT-ers was trying to explain the transforming power of wireless Internet access when he stopped, looked down at his PC, fiddled around and said, "You know what, I've got a wi-fi card here, why don't I see if I can catch a signal." Sure enough, the room was wired (or is it unwired) for wi-fi and the next thing we knew he was surfing live and wireless on the PC's projection screen.

I thought it had to be a set-up, so I went up afterwards and asked him if this was something I could do, now, at home, on-my-own. He explained it was still a little complicated (remember, this was two years ago) and wrote down the equipment I'd need and the Internet protocol info I'd need to use to set up a wireless network in my home.

Now let me point out, I'm no early adopter. I'm usually part of the second wave to hit the technology beachfront. Don't get me wrong, I like technology and I like it fresh, but I also like it to be stable and easy-to-figure out. Nonetheless, I plunged ahead and after nearly four days of incessant distress calls between my hardware provider Linksys and my broadband provider Cablevision, something magical happened, I got connected while disconnected. It was one of those amazing moments and as soon as it happened the next thought to cross my mind was how long the battery on my laptop would work if I were truly roaming around my house.

Now fast-forward to the summer of 2003 and batteries have once again emerged as a precious commodity, but not for the reasons I originally anticipated. Blackouts aside, a battery-challenged wireless media marketplace does indeed appear to be emerging. And confirmation of this comes from no more aptly named a source than Power Strategies Inc., which conducted a survey on the power needs of wireless consumers in anticipation of the Portable Power Conference & Expo, slated for Sept. 21-23 in San Francisco.

Complete results are scheduled to be released at the event, but top-line findings suggest portable power is indeed becoming an issue. Among other things, the study found more than 50% of notebook users claim to already be using a wireless network at least one hour each day and that 21% of notebook users have purchased an extra battery for their notebooks. These findings are important because they suggest the wireless market may be expanding faster than current portable power systems can satisfy. I for one am hoping the battery and power system designers who will meet at this year' s expo come up with a solution. And when they do, watch for that seamless media marketplace to finally explode.