• by Larry Dobrow , Featured Columnist, October 13, 2003

For the last few years, wireless email has been hyped by media and technology pundits alike as "the next big thing." Their reasoning seems to be that of all potential outside-the-office applications, email is both the most crucial and the most trusted by otherwise technophobic users.

Now along comes a new study by technology wonks The Radicati Group suggesting that the wireless email revolution may be further along than anybody had suspected. Exhaustively billed by the company's PR minions as "a comprehensive study of the Wireless Email Market, including Market Sizing, Forecasts, Technology Trends, and Leading Vendor and Product Strategies and Analysis," the report projects that the number of wireless email users will hit nearly two million by the end of the year.

No real shocker there, given the avalanche of new all-in-one mobile devices and the continuing decline in the price of wireless email servers. Slightly more surprising, however, were data noting that wireless email use significantly increases corporate productivity. Collecting information from vendors, network operators and Fortune 1000 companies, Radicati determined that employees using wireless email do an extra 55 minutes of work per day; the figure projects to increase to 80 minutes by the end of 2007.

What does this mean? Radicati president and chief executive officer explains in a press release that "in a world where time is of the essence and an increasing number of tasks are mission-critical, wireless email and other soon-to-come applications will pave the way for a truly global mobile business landscape." Well, duh. In any event, the next time your boss sticks you with a BlackBerry, you might want to consider asking him or her for early egress from the office to catch that 4:20 train out of Grand Central. After all, there will be plenty of time to tackle your email backlog on the ride home.

--Larry Dobrow