Print

Mail

wiki links

Cellphone makers ponder how small a success can be

Mobile phones get smaller and lighter every year. With the part count for the average mobile going down by 20 percent to 30 percent every year, a phone bought five years ago now looks as old-fashioned as a 1950s wireless. But will mobile phones eventually be so small that they do not even look like mobile phones?

Clues can be found in Asia, where many of the world's most technologically advanced firms are based. Japanese and South Korean customers have been unusually receptive to technological innovations. Consequently, firms use the Asian market as a test bed for new ideas.

Manufacturers have spotted the logical outcome of the ever-shrinking phone -- a unit that can be worn rather than carried. A wearable phone is easier to use, and less likely to be lost or stolen.

Last year, two firms tried to cash in by launching wristwatch models. NTT DoCoMo's Wristomo phone, manufactured by Seiko and offering e-mail and Web browser functionality, sold out its initial run of 1,000 within 10 minutes of going on sale.

Samsung's equivalent, touted as the world's first "Dick Tracy phone," launched last year offering GPRS, one and a half hours of continuous talk time, voice-activated dialling and a built-in phone book. It supported WAP and Bluetooth, and weighed less than 80g.

But NTT DoCoMo stopped making the Wristomo after interest tailed off, and last year's promised European launch of Samsung's phone never took place. The problem manufacturers face is the tension between people's desire for smaller mobile phones and their hunger for more functionality.

In Japan, says Michael King, a principal analyst with Gartner, there has even been a reversal of the trend for miniaturization, with consumers preferring bigger cellphones with larger screens and multiple LCDs. He argues that no solution will satisfy everyone.

The answer could lie in Bluetooth, which allows short-range wireless communication. It enables a phone to have multiple functions without requiring them to be on the same physical device.

Motorola has developed a prototype called the SmartButton, a sleek-looking badge worn by the user which uses Bluetooth to connect to the user's phone.

To use it, you don't need to pick up it up or even look at it, said Joe Dvorak, a member of Motorola's technical staff: "If the user taps the SmartButton and says 'Call John Smith', the phone looks up the number and places the call."

Don't expect to be able to buy such phones in the next year or so, however. The technology is there, but firms are still trying to find the form that works.

"It's just a matter of someone hitting on the right combination of Bluetooth connective accessories and miniaturized product," King said.
This story has been viewed 1552 times.