Cell phones in the past were only used to make phone calls, but those days are long gone. In today’s world where change is the only constant, cell phones have been upgraded with many new technological features.
1. Mobile phone – A complete portfolio
A new technology standard called “near field communications,” or NFC, will turn cell phones into credit or debit cards. A chip is built into a phone that allows you to make a payment using a touch-sensitive interface or by holding the phone within a few inches of an NFC reader. Your credit card or bank account is debited accordingly.
2. The World Wide Web in your pocket
Today, many smartphones already offer full HTML browsers. Nokia’s latest N and E series phones, which run Opera browsers for the Symbian operating system, are among the most advanced. In the future, these HTML mobile browsers will reach even the most basic phones.
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3. Rent, rent, rent
Due to a Federal Communications Commission mandate requiring carriers to locate people when they dial 911 in an emergency, a large number of cell phones sold in the United States already have built-in GPS (Global Positioning System) chips. ). While some mobile operators use these chips to identify users’ locations when they are in danger, they can also be used to support a variety of location-related services.
4. Search goes mobile
Mobile search will become a standard feature on all phones over the next three years. Most phones likely have search built into their home screens, with a prominent search icon next to the time, and icons representing battery and signal strength. Some phones will actually have a search button on the keyboard or sticking out of the case. While the big boys Google and Yahoo will certainly have a presence on mobile devices, “white label” services, like one available from JumpTap, will also be popular because they allow operators to brand the service as their own.
5. Mobile TV
Mobile TV in all its forms is expected to explode in the coming years. IMS Research forecasts that by 2011 there will be more than 30 million mobile TV subscribers in the United States. The firm also predicts that nearly 70 million phones capable of receiving mobile TV will be shipped to the US in 2011.
Consumers will have access to a wide range of TV possibilities on their phones, from professionally produced and original content to repurposed clips, live streams and user-generated clips. Experts believe that there will be an increase in the use of mobile TV in 2008 when the Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to take place in Beijing.
6. Simplified navigation
Have you ever noticed how many clicks it takes to find what you are looking for on your phone? It’s worse than counting how many clicks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. But mobile phone manufacturers and mobile operators are working hard to make phones easier to navigate and use. You can easily access, browse and explore the latest mobile software and games with your mobile phone, whenever and wherever you are. These software fall into various categories of productivity, business and professional, travel, lifestyle, and many more.
7. Smarter radios
Many phones today are equipped with dual radios that allow subscribers to roam on differently configured cellular networks around the world, but in the coming years phone manufacturers will also be incorporating Wi-Fi technology into phones, making will allow customers to use the devices on any Wi-Fi network. network access point.
8. Your own cell tower
Does your cell phone have poor reception inside your home, but work fine when you’re standing on your porch? Mobile operators may soon ask you to help them improve cellular coverage in your home or office with small Wi-Fi-like routers that boost cellular signals.
These routers create what are called femto cells, or small personal cell sites. And they could help solve a major problem for cellular operators that have trouble covering less populated regions or have difficulty reaching indoor users.
9. Picture Perfect
One of the most dramatic changes in cell phone technology over the past decade has been the advent of camera phones. Today, approximately 41 percent of American households have a camera phone. In fact, it would be hard to buy a phone today that doesn’t have a camera. By 2010, more than one billion mobile phones worldwide will ship with a built-in camera, up from 589 million camera phones expected to be sold in 2007, according to market research firm Gartner.
10. Crazy about mobile music
There is no doubt that mobile music is all the rage and will continue to grow in popularity. Mobile phone users worldwide are expected to spend $32.2 billion on music for their phones by 2010, up from $13.7 billion in 2007, according to Gartner.
This category of content includes everything from basic ring tones, “real tones” (uncompressed digital representations of analog signals), and answer tones to more sophisticated full track downloads. Music in all its incarnations is the second most popular mobile data service, behind Short Message Service (SMS), in terms of usage and revenue.
