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HERMAN, Michael

September 09, 2003

Signalling a shake-up of the consumer electronics market, David Levin, head of phone software firm Symbian, says the PDA (personal digital assistant) is dead.

Levin told BBC News Online that users will soon discover that their smart mobile phones can fulfil most of their hi-tech needs.

The cost of adding extra functions to phones is falling and, he says, phones may become the camera, games machine, music player, and radio that many people turn to first.

Levin says that people have been quite slow to use their phones for more than talking but believes consumers will adapt.

"We need to appreciate that human behaviour evolves and we cannot just announce a technology and have mass adoption."

Users no longer needed to use a PDA or mobile PC to access email, address books, or calendar programs because today's smart phones include these functions. But PDA manufacturers are not the only ones in for a shock. "At some point in the next six to nine months there will be more digital cameras sold on mobiles than stand alone," he says.

Indeed, cellphones are proving to have applications never dreamed of 30 years ago.

Thanks to X-Cube, for example, mobile phones can lock the doors of public lockers, thus avoiding the anonymity of conventional coin lockers and simultaneously assisting in the prevention of illegal behaviour.

The "keyless locker" made its debut earlier this year in Tokyo and the system is already in use at four locations in Wellington.

Data from research firm Gartner Group appears to confirm Levin's claims.

"Manufacturers are relying on customers to upgrade to more expensive, feature-rich, colour phones with cameras and games to drive increased revenue," says Ben Wood, principal analyst with the mobile communications group for Gartner in Europe.

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(C) 2003 The Press. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved

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