The evolution of the smartphone



The Nokia 9120 Communicator. Image from ArsTechnica.com



Ars Technica had an excellent feature story about the evolution of the smartphone, mainly in the past 10 years and I looked back in interest/bemusement/fascination/nostalgia to the models they showcased.

Many of the devices I recognized as ones I had used at some point in time - or at least used a variant of the original design. The Nokia Communicator stood out as a real break-out device at the time - imagine that you could get on the Internet from a mobile phone in 2002?! Yes, it was slow, but it was also a pioneering device for it's time.

Interestingly, I'm hearing more and more that people are accessing the Internet through their mobile devices - YouTube discussed

"revealed that YouTube now boasts over 2 billion video playbacks a day, 150 million of those being on mobile devices." (courtesy of Techcrunch.com interview with YouTube's product manager).

The time is fast approaching where many people are considering mobile phones with some sort of functionality for connecting to the Internet while mobile. Not just so-called-smarthphones such as iPhones or Android devices, but 'feature phones', the more basic models that are the bigger sellers worldwide. The new Windows 7 phones look like they are aiming for this market, with a much more stream-lined functionality for many features.

So, leading on from the evolution of smartphones to their current functions and styles (namely lead by the ground-breaking iPhone only three years ago), where do you think this is all going to lead? What functions do you think will appear? And how should it be dealt with by schools to support this sort of new technology, and even in the workplace?

Mobile subscriber numbers

Something that has stayed close to my interests over the years is the use of mobile technology, stemming from my background with a big mobile telco many years ago.

While reading through some technology news a few days ago I came across this article discussing the number of mobile subscribers worldwide and the fact that the world really is starting to trend towards full mobile connectivity. Of course, the numbers are slightly skewed, it's not actually the fact that 80% of the population has a mobile phone, but the fact that in regions like Europe, there are 160% more mobile phones than people - from users having multiple handsets due to work, personal use, or for different countries as they roam (such as myself carrying two mobiles from different countries).

And now, this number is starting to explode as many new devices start to appear with a mobile internet connection; notable examples are the iPad. Other newer, more extreme examples are connection options are starting to appear in cars: the Paris Motor Show had a BMW with mobile connectivity, car mounts, etc. for devices.

I come from the borderline Gen X/Gen Y group so have grown up my my late teens with a mobile phone, it's something that is part of me - to be honest, I can't remember the last time I used a landline! So I straddle the divide between some the era of no-mobile-phones, and their by-now widespread adoption.

Many pupils are starting to get used to the idea of doing searches, communicating fully through mobile phones. And yet, most schools don't allow any use of them in schools, and give no guidance on how they could be used for their benefit other than just texting each other. do you think the level of discussion of mobile usage should be increased in schools? All ideas welcome!

Trustworthy Tech: Cellular Services - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

**Update: Incorrectly posted to my personal blog**

Trustworthy Tech: Cellular Services - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

It's funny, having worked for a Wireless operator, I watch in amusement as a company (Apple) with zero experience whatsoever in mobile devices comes in and at it's first attempt wipes the floor on everything else on the market with the iphone.

Having tinkered with most of what is now the cutting edge devices (Nokia N95, Win Mobile, etc.), I can see that they all had major flaws. Still though, how was a non-mobile company allowed to do this?!?

Joke: Phones Anonymous

I was sitting on a plane (again) on Wednesday evening as we landed into Dublin airport, I noticed the most amusing thing. It moved like a wave down the camera as I listened to almost an echo of the Nokia tone as people jumped to turn their phone on immediately upon landing. Who says people aren't addicted?
Now this is being written by someone a) who used to work for a Mobile phone operator, b) has had a mobile phone since 1998, and c) has a personal best of a monthly phone bill of €1000+ (while working for the mobile phone operator ;) so please take this as very tongue in cheek.

I'm going to set up PAA. I know it doesn't sound as catchy as AA, but Phone Addicts Annonymous should do really really well!
Picture it:
"Hi, my name is ...... and I'm a phone addict"
"The first step on my road to curing my illness is to accept my illness"
"The first thing I do in the morning is turn over to turn my phone on. Actually that's not right, I don't even turn it off anymore - it sleeps right beside me. I call it my other girlfriend"
"Sometimes I find myself unconsciously looking at it in the hope that it says 'one new message received'"
"I've even found I'm comfortable enough now to have conversations for the world to hear while walking down the middle of streets surrounded by complete strangers"
"And whenever I have to stand around waiting for someone/thing, I find myself punching away on those tiny buttons (unless I've an iphone where it doesn't have any....oh never mind...) to keep myself occupied. It's like the little angel (or devil?) that sits on my shoulder."
"I find I can't go more than a short period without it. You should see what I'm like when I forget to bring it with me. OH I'M SO SORRY PHONE FOR LEAVING YOU BEHIND - FORGIVE ME!!!!!"

"someday, my aim is not to look the phone screen before a message has arrived"
"I know it'll take time, but I'm willing to work on it"

[INSERT CLAPPING NOISE FROM OTHER PAA ATTENDEE'S]





Have a good weekend all!

The changing mobile landscape

Imagine having the option or choice to check Google Maps for a location while out walking around on the roads, all integrated with a satellite location device so it can give you directions on the fly; check your emails; email some photos to a blog/album (hey, some people do regularly blog you know :); subscribe to your favorite podcasts and have them downloaded in the background; use Skype to call anywhere worldwide for a few cents a minute.
Yeah, I'm sure the Americans out there will be saying: iPhone. Afraid not, I had this all running on my phone on a first generation 3G (high-speed) mobile phone last year on my mobile operators network.
It's funny, I actually wrote this last week but due to various reasons had some other priorities and delayed in posting this as I wasn't happy anyway with how it was written. And then, as it always happen, I see two articles up on Ars Technia here and here regarding Google's latest stats and thoughts towards the mobile world.

Firstly, where did I use them? Most was on a Nokia 6680 (Nokia's first 3G phone that was offered in Ireland) and the only additional add-on required was a GPS module that worked via bluetooth (i.e. how your headset connects). Where was I using all these services?
Mapping services were used to find my way around London. Flying into a different airport, route directions on the fly was a gift
Gmail checks while traveling in China last year
Photo posts while in China
Podcasts: well, I only tried this out - I haven't really gotten into them yet ;)
Skype: the only one that didn't work on the Nokia (it still doesn't) and involved Windows Mobile. But perfect calls (most of the time)

Most of them I'm sure some people would consider as useful. There's a myriad of other possibilities of course that I'm sure I'm not mentioning (status update services like Twitter and Jaiku for example). Anyway back to my point, these are all possibilities for quite a while and there are only two people currently able to even considering trying most of those services: iPhone users (USA only at present) and Three mobile phone users in Europe (although a very limited percentage of the mobile population still). Mainly it's come down to the incumbent telcos not showing any willingness to offer these services at a sensible price. Whether it's a lack of ideas in how to make cash from these new services (i.e. does it become just a pipe to the internet - like your typical ISP for broadband in the home).
I'm starting to wonder if the iPhone is going to change this, along with Google's big pushes to get all it's services working on mobile devices. With almost a million iPhones already sold and no sign of abatement, and now recent rumors that they've managed to persuade some of the European telcos into a revenue sharing agreement. I can only imagine that this is just a rumor! Talk about shooting themselves in the foot if this is the case.
But considering I know how much my bill was for running these services at 2006 mobile rates (think several hundred Euros), I can only look forward to what is starting to happen.

The other article covers Google's current thinking regarding buying it's own frequency spectrum in the States. How's that for trying to scare the telcos. If Google took it's 'free' attitude to mobile phone networks and paid for them with advertisements, what happens to everyone else......