8 big ideas to watch in '08

Sir Richard will help fund U.S. entrepreneurs, jetpacks will finally fly, and GPS devices will show the cheapest gas nearby - plus much more! Check out our Next Little Thing picks for 2008.

Wi-Fly
AirCell aims to expand into Mexico and Canada by 2009.
Wi-Fly
Should you be doing a lot more business at 35,000 feet in 2008, you'll have Jack Blumenstein to thank. The CEO of Denver-based AirCell has inked deals with American Airlines and Virgin America to bring wireless Internet access to their aircraft, starting in the first half of 2008. His consumer research says that 75% of passengers with laptops would use onboard Internet every time they fly. The airline pays $100,000 for the installation, the passenger pays $10 per flight, and Blumenstein thinks he can bring in $1 billion a year.

It's a proposition some giants of the industry couldn't make work. Connexion by Boeing, the joint wireless Internet venture between Boeing, American, Delta, and United, folded in 2006 after onboard equipment proved too expensive and heavy - as much as $800,000 and 1,000 pounds.

What makes AirCell different? The company's Internet equipment is significantly lighter (at 150 pounds) and less expensive than Boeing's technology. Unlike Connexion, which used satellites, AirCell's engineers use cellphone towers on the ground to create a roaming hot spot in the air. AirCell worked with equipment maker Qualcomm to fine-tune existing cellphone radios and mount them atop existing towers. Because there's nothing up there to get in the way of the signals, AirCell will use just 100 cell towers to cover the continental U.S.

Virgin Money

Electric cars

Greener charcoal

Jetpacks

Wi-Fly

Weedy wine

Real estate in '08

Advanced GPS
Read the full stories behind our 8 picks for 2008. (more)
Behind the scenes at the Boston launch of Virgin Money, Richard Branson's new peer-to-peer lending service. (more)
Check out how our past Next Little Thing picks are holding up. (more)

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.