Phone Revolution

Over forty years ago a young musician with a poet's name wrote a song about how times were changing rapidly. His purpose was political, but the sentiment certainly applies to mobile computing technology. We've gone from 25 lb "luggable" laptops, to 4 oz PDAs with near-PC functionality. A few years back PDAs started acquiring mobile phone functionality—and vice versa. This year, almost all of the new Windows Mobile devices we've seen have phone capability built in. And that's not all—Pocket PCs with integrated phone capability—the so called "Phone Edition devices"—are starting to look more and more like mobile phones!

Some of the more intriguing results of this evolution were on display at the 2006 3GSM World Conference, which took place last February in Barcelona. As the title of the conference suggests, 3GSM World looks at innovative devices and services relating to GSM cellular networks. All of the devices described in this article support GSM/GPRS networks. (Cingular and T-Mobile are the only GSM carriers in U.S.)

The focus this year was on high-speed data networks (the so called "3G" and "3.5G" networks) and bringing TV to mobile devices. Unlike e-mail or even audio, you need pretty hefty bandwidth to stream video and TV to a mobile device. High-speed data networks, as they are deployed, will help make this a reality.

Windows Mobile was everywhere. (According to Arne Hess at TheUnwired.net, this year's 3GSM Word was "Windows Mobile heaven." HTC was showing off its new Trilogy device, a TV enabled Smartphone that it will release later this year through Virgin Mobile and British Telecom (BT). Fujitsu-Siemens displayed its new T-Series Pocket LOOX Phone Edition device with integrated GPS, Samsung unveiled its new i320, and i-mate presented its new Smartflip, a Razr-like device based on HTC's Star Trek Smartphone. (We've also included a few announcements from the CeBIT show, which took place in Germany a month later.)

3GSM is a European conference and most of the devices described in this article will be released in Europe or Asia first. Unless we mention otherwise, we do not know when they will be released in the U.S., or which carriers will support them. As mentioned, Cingular and T-Mobile are the GSM carriers in the U.S. Note also that it is possible that CDMA versions of these products may also be introduced. If so, you may see them available through Sprit or Verizon Wireless.

HTC Trilogy (Image courtesy of GeekZone.co.nz).

HTC / Virgin Mobile TV Smartphone

Key feature: Broadband capability supporting digital TV and radio broadcasts.

HTC, the primary designer and manufacturer of Windows Mobile devices in the world, has announced that it will team up with Virgin Mobile and British Telecom (BT) to offer mobile TV on a new Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone that HTC will release. The new device, called the "Trilogy," will be marketed through wireless carriers in Europe. Virgin Mobile/BT will offer the digital TV and radio broadcast service to its customers later this year. The Trilogy features a 2.2" screen and an integrated 1.3 mega pixel camera.

HTC Press release (http://www.htc.com.tw/news/press060214.html)

Fujitsu-Siemens T-Series Pocket LOOX Phone Edition device.

Fujitsu Siemens GPS-enable Pocket LOOX Phone Edition device

Key feature: Integrated GPS.

Fujitsu Siemens displayed its new T Series Pocket LOOX Phone Edition devices, which will be available this summer in Europe. Based on Windows Mobile 5.0, both of devices in this series have UTMS-based tri-band GSM phones built into them. Both incorporate Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology, as well as a built-in SiRFstar III GPS receiver.