Business 2.0 Magazine July 2003--Issue Highlights.

Business Editors

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 23, 2003

COVER STORY

"The Next Big Thing," by Michael V. Copeland, Om Malik, and Rafe Needleman, page 62

The wireless revolution is here, right now. It's presenting untold new opportunities for fortune and glory. But forget the hype and hysteria over Wi-Fi and other small-scale schemes for building wireless local area networks. The great engine powering us into the new wireless age is, of all things, the good old cell phone. Every year a third of all cell-phone users--now 1.2 billion and climbing--upgrade to newer models, and it's this relentless churn that drives innovation. The growing wireless economy translates into an enormous opportunity; companies from General Motors to UPS to Roto-Rooter are already adapting the new technologies in order to sell more and spend less. Business 2.0 breaks down where the new opportunities are and what you can do to seize them now.

OTHER FEATURED ARTICLES

"The Magazine That Launched a Decade," by Gary Wolf, page 86

In an exclusive excerpt from Gary Wolf's upcoming book, Wired: A Romance, the author details how, with an empty bank account, an army of interns, and a borrowed photocopier, Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe created Wired and, in the process, helped trigger the digital revolution. The "zero issue" prototype contained no original writing, but with $130,000 the staff managed to produce 125,000 copies of the first issue. A few weeks after the magazine's launch, newsstands in New York and Los Angeles were sold out. Rossetto and Metcalfe even managed to secure funding from major media tycoon Si Newhouse at Conde Nast. Wolf's new book explains how, barely a year after the pundits had pronounced Wired a loser, it won the magazine industry's highest accolade, a National Magazine Award for general excellence.

"The Business 2.0 Dream Team," by Chip Bayers, Lucas Graves, Thomas Mucha, and Todd Woody, page 77

Your midsize tech company has the product and the market opportunity to break into the big time. All you need is the leadership to get you there. If you could choose anyone to run the show, who would you pick? When Business 2.0 posed the question to some of the top professional talent-watchers, they picked not only the most qualified people for the job but also leaders who would fit with the rest of the team. Meet the executives, from companies ranging from Dell and Microsoft to Salesforce.com and Sony, who were named to our all-star squad.

"Sultan of Stream," by Paul Sloan, page 70

With some help from Major League Baseball, Rob Glaser's RealNetworks has proved that people will pay for live entertainment on the Web. Three years ago, Glaser made a bet-the-company gamble that even his lieutenants thought was ridiculous: that he could build a thriving, subscription-based business by broadcasting audio and video content over the Internet. More than 1 million subscribers now pay an average of $8.50 a month to dig into Real's eclectic buffet of music, video, news, and sports. Broadband is fast reaching a critical mass, and giants like Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL are duking it out to sign up online-entertainment junkies. Can RealNetworks hold off the heavy hitters who want in on its game?

"Beyond the Genome," by Erick Schonfeld, page 94

As science celebrates the decoding of the human genome, the man whose invention made it possible isn't resting on his laurels. Leroy Hood, MD, Ph.D., was a principal scientist of the Human Genome Project. "The Human Genome Project has given us a genetic parts list," Hood says--but before the wonder drugs expected to sprout from genomics research can arrive, science must learn how all the parts of that list work together. Realizing Hood's vision will require as-yet-uninvented scientific instruments generating unimaginable amounts of data. On the other hand, if he succeeds, it would finally usher in the biotech golden age the Human Genome Project once seemed to promise. What does this mean? For the pharmaceutical industry, it would be the ultimate growth strategy: to make lifelong customers of people with no symptoms.

COLUMNS

The Point, by Dean Kamen, page 124

This month's guest columnist, Dean Kamen, the prolific inventor of the Segway HT, asserts that one more clever gadget won't really improve our lives. But why can't we see the opportunity in using smart technologies to benefit developing lands?

The Human Factor, by Jeffrey Pfeffer, page 58

Why do CEOs push for ill-advised acquisitions? One word: Ego.

Face Time, by John Heilemann, page 35

In Act I, beknighted Welshman Howard Stringer helped rescue Sony Pictures. In Act II, he'll be asked to do the same for the company's floundering record label.

The Message, by John Battelle, page 46

With a plink and a plunk and 86 moving parts, Honda reminds the ad world of the value of great content--and teaches it something about the power of interactivity.

PLUS

The Next Level, page 23: In the wake of its acquisition of Handspring, will Palm's upcoming move to split its hardware and software divisions pay off?; Titans of Tech, page 30: Turnaround specialist Ed Zander's fitness regimen for tech companies; What Works, page 41: How Netflix is changing Hollywood; Problem Solver, page 53: How Orbitz went open-source to cut hardware costs and boost power; Investing, page 111: Is this rebound for real? Here's how to read the signals; The Best, page 114: New technologies that get you to that big meeting without the travel hassles; Power Toys, page 116: Good thing Scandinavians aren't inclined to boast, or there'd be no shutting them up about the new Saab 9-3; Careers, page 118: How to deal with trick interview questions; Gizmos, page 122: A new PDA with biometric security, the camcorder that burns its own DVDs; and more.

The July 2003 issue is available on newsstands June 23. For more information, or to schedule an interview with a Business 2.0 writer or editor, contact Marlene Saritzky at 415-293-4839 or [e-mail]; Karen Palmer at 415-293-4837 or [e-mail]; or Laura Goldberg at 212-725-2295 or [e-mail].