Bob Keefe
October 21, 2003
Just getting used to the idea of using your cell phone to send text messages or take pictures?
Wait until you see what wireless companies are planning next.
Mobile phones are morphing from mere communications tools into digital Swiss Army knives that can play games and music, get news and weather reports and - oh, yes - still make an occasional call.
At the same time, wireless companies are setting themselves up to compete with traditional PCs, handheld devices such as Palm Pilots, and even video game consoles.
At the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) trade show here this week, companies are touting the emerging technologies:
- Music: Several phone makers are making MP3 music players a big part of their newest handsets. Nokia, for example, is showing off its 3300 Music Phone, available only in foreign markets so far, that stores up to 11 hours of music and has a built-in FM radio.
- Information: Companies can now beaming everything from news headlines to restaurant ads to your cell phone for a fee - and more services are coming. AccuWeather Inc. plans to debut detailed weather forecasts in major cities early next year, including tiny hurricane tracking maps and even UV index ratings. Other companies are rolling out video and audio news and sports clips.
- Games: Forget that simple ``snake'' game that came with your phone. Some new handsets look more like Nintendo-style Game Boys than telephones, and games that once required a TV set soon can be played on a cell phone screen.
Few devices illustrate the potential future of the cell phone more than Nokia's new N-Gage gadget, which debuted internationally two weeks ago.
Billed as a game machine first and a telephone second, the $300 handheld is a hybrid that also functions as a MP3 music player, a FM radio, and a personal digital assistant that can sync with a PC's calendar, e-mail and other programs.
``It's not your father's car phone anymore,'' said CTIA president Tom Wheeler.
A patriarch of the phone business, Nokia recently underwent a major reorganization aimed at transforming itself from a cell phone company to a maker of cellular-based devices that do all sorts of things.
To reinforce the paradigm shift with employees, Nokia even implemented a new in-house rule: Any employee who refers to N-Gage as simply a phone is fined one dollar or one euro.
``Our vision is that life is going mobile,'' said Nada Usina, Nokia's general manager of entertainment and media.
Like so much in the technology business, there's hype as well as substance in many of the wireless industry's new promises.
Wireless companies have been pledging for years to turn handsets into everything from Internet browsers to global positioning system terminals, but haven't come close to delivering.
While most of the new services debuting here should be available to consumers everywhere soon, many can be used only with the newest, most expensive phones. And in many cases, they'll be available only in Europe and Asia, where wireless phones are even more widespread than in the United States.
Technology needs to catch up with the hype too. To send video clips and do high-quality Web browsing using cell phones, transfer speeds need to be faster and phones need more power.
The amount of wireless spectrum - the federally managed airwaves that carry cellular signals - isn't big enough either, said Rudy Baca, an analyst at technology research company Precursor Group.
``I think what we're seeing now is just announcements and not much more,'' Baca said. ``You're not going to see widespread deployment of a lot of these things for several years at least.''
Cell phone companies really don't want to wait that long. What's driving their desire to dial up new services is the fact that most people who want a cell phone already have one.
In some big markets, three out of four households already have a cell phone - and in many cases, more than one.
No place in the United States is more cell phone-friendly than Atlanta, where 75 percent of homes subscribe to cellular service, according to a report last week from Scarborough Research.
Austin, Texas; Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Washington, D.C. were tied for No. 3 on the Scarborough report, with about 72 percent of all homes subscribing to cell service. Detroit ranked No. 2.
Since so many people already have phones, cellular companies have to find new markets - either by selling services like downloadable information or new models that let users do more.
``What (cellular carriers and phone makers) need to do is find ways to grow more profits from their existing markets,'' Baca said.
Encouraging the wireless companies are the industry's recent home runs with add-on services such as text messaging and camera phones.
According to the cellular industry trade group, wireless phone users sent 1.5 billion text messages during the month of June, a 50 percent increase from June 2002.
Sales of camera phones, meanwhile, recently outpaced sales of digital cameras, according to the trade group.
In all, cellular companies' revenues from wireless data services totaled $700 million during the first half of this year, a 70 percent increase from a year ago and a 300 percent increase over the first six months of 2001, it said.
``The numbers speak for themselves,'' CTIA president Wheeler said in opening the trade show Tuesday. ``The wireless data business, which we have for so long said is coming ... has arrived.''
On the Web:
Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association: www.wow-com.com
-----
(The Cox web site is at http://www.coxnews.com )
c.2003 Cox News Service
Keep up with the latest in mobile computing news with a free subscription to our mobile computing news alerts service. Each week, Synchrologic delivers a summary of the most significant mobile computing news to your inbox. To sign up for this service, click here
.
|
