BusinessWeek devotes huge section to Wi-Fi: BusinessWeek devoted a whole host of articles to the subject of Wi-Fi, most circling around hot spots and cellular.
One of the most succinct and excellent comments on the relationship of 3G cellular to Wi-Fi was in an interview with Nicholas Negroponte: If you give me broadband...[2-5 Mbp+]...I cannot really use it without devoting my fullest attention (which means my hands and eyes, not just my ears)...many of the issues that face cell-phone operators aren't present (like hand-off). The problem is different. There really is room to cohabitate.
Exactly! Oddly, Andy Reinhardt's commentary in the same section ignores that critical difference. Wi-Fi can provide a virtual desktop experience: you can act not too far off from being in your office. 3G, even in its best possible incarnation in the next zero to two years, will be a slow data interchange format for making quick email retrievals and spooling, or for queuing data through slow pull (i.e., grab my email over the next 30 minutes as I drive to my destination).
Some other good remarks-- A T-Mobile exec on how Wi-Fi and cell differs: With cell phones we had to give people devices to use it. Here [with Wi-Fi], people already have the devices. We just give them new areas where they can log on.