Look Mom, no PC! Analysis/Commentary An Internet company in San Jose called iDini.com has developed a way to transmit and receive working documents like Word, PowerPoint, or Excel files using a Palm Pilot, PDA, or a cellular phone. Chris Lin, the CEO of iDini, explains in a video interview on the iDini site that the company provides "middleware," the in-between software that connects wireless devices to files stored on servers. The wireless desktop software allows small devices to receive HTML, PDF, and other standard document formats. Theoretically, two business managers could finalize a contract using no more than their cellular phones. A nice public relations person at iDini (rhymes with Houdini) offered to let me interview Chris Lin, then seemed to waffle. "Could you send written questions?" she wrote in a follow-up e-mail. I replied, "Not in a million years." Perhaps this was rude. But all the same, when you get a chance to go to the front of the line, why settle on getting squeezed into the middle? iDini's product was compelling, even if its fussy corporate protocol wasn't. So, as you can imagine, I settled on doing my own research and passing on the mangled noun phrase or dribbled stringlet of alphabet soup. And, besides, I avoided the quandary of using material that my interview subject and I would agree was off the record. "Off the record? Hey, I'm a journalist, nothing I say is off the record...(gulp!)" I was really impressed with iDini. This little company has both barrels aimed at Asia -- especially China -- the fastest growing Internet market in the world. What China lacks in infrastructure, wireless technology may fill in for. In addition, iDini has partnered with Sina.com, the biggest content provider in China, according to Interactive Audience Measurement Asia, an Internet ranking service based in Hong Kong. Japan also has a potential for unlimited wireless use. Already demand for wireless in Japan seems to have outstripped demand for wire-based Internet, according to a Red Herring article by Andrea Hamilton. NTT DoCoMo, Japan's 12-million-subscriber wireless provider, plans to upgrade to a bigger and better wireless standard called "3G" later this year. Getting back to iDini, and the interview than never was: iDini looks well-poised for survival during the great consolidation of 2001. Unlike its competitor, Modo, which went belly-up last November when funding dried up, iDini has the important venture firm of H & Q Asia Pacific behind it and investors in the U.S. and in China -- even in Beijing. As one news feature quips about U.S. opportunities to do business with China, "Trade Wall Down, Wireless Rushes In." Will iDini have more success in the U.S. where desktops still flourish but where businesses are increasingly mobile (travel-based, fast-paced) or in China where the wireless subscriber base is likely to swell to 70 million in 2004? Will the service appeal to business-to-business commerce or to consumers on the run? Chris Lin seems to suggest secure big ticket transactions between corporate executives -- but time will tell. Since I haven't talked to him, I can't say either. February 7, 2001