Putting It All Together (BusinessWeek)
Wi-fi cellphones
Each year cellphone makers surmise the needs of their consumer base, making predictions like new slim phones, better video, but always overlooking one practicality that makes phone use such a hindrance: the dropped calls.
This year Motorola and Nokia have promised to get back to the basics and improve call reception. How will this promise be kept? Through Wi-fi, the same technology that provides computers with a cordless connection to the Internet. T-Mobile also plans to offer phones that piggy-back off of their T-Mobile hotspots.
The push for Wi-fi services for cellphones looked to my media experts as the next progressive step to receiving and controlling all of your digital content from your phone. Networks developed by Qualcomm and Nokia are expected to enable cable programming to get beamed directly to a phone, with on demand programming tuned to a handset.
Will this take-off? Milestones have been set and cellular service providers such as Verizon and Sprint to say that next year their subscribers will enjoy the ability to customize their home screen with whatever content they desire (news, stocks, sports).