Monday, October 22, 2007

Future technologies that will rock your MOBILE world

Excellent article in ComputerWorld today about the emerging mobile technologies and what the future holds for mobile-geeks worldwide.

The article notes 13 technologies that will provide dramatically better mobile access, better devices and better applications. Here's a quick recap of the first 7 technologies, which would make even George Jetson jealous (click HERE to read the entire article at ComputerWorld):

Disruption 1: Mobile WiMax
Bottomline: fast, affordable access. Look for Sprint to launch it's speedy network (2Mbit/sec. to 4Mbit/sec. range) early next spring.

Disruption 2: Multihop relay networks
Columnist Bert Latamore explains..."With multihop relay networks, wireless signals will route themselves through a series of access points. Like the Internet itself, the route that the data takes is variable, depending on conditions."

Targeted deployment: 3 years (bummer).

Disruptions 3 and 4: Femtocells and fixed mobile convergence
A femtocell looks a bit like a Wi-Fi router but performs the same function in the home or office as cellular base stations that sit in brick buildings at the base of cell towers. Both these technologies enable you to have one phone and one phone number with which you can communicate from virtually anywhere. Here's T-Mo's stab at this: HotSpot@Home.

Personally, I'm digging this one...can't wait to start using my mobile phone for everything.

Disruption 5: Miniscule, less power-hungry mobile chips
Tomorrow's mobile chip sets will also combine multiple radios, such as Wi-Fi, 3G and WiMax, on a single chip, according to the experts. Bottomline: this means more powerful mobile devices and applications. Cool.

Disruption 6: Wireless USB and ultrawideband
These short-range, wireless cable replacement technologies are starting to be available. Short-range wireless cord replacements will also be useful for entertainment applications such as streaming video throughout the home. But the real benefit will be using these technologies with tiny mobile devices.

Disruption 7: Nearly flawless speech recognition
More powerful mobile processors will solve this problem, and everything you do with your keyboard at your desk, you'll be able to do with speech while you're mobile.

There's the top seven disruptors - for the remaining six, check out Bert Latamore's article HERE.

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