Phones and notebooks to get closer

By Kaunda Chama for Intel

San Francisco, 03 Mar 2005

Intel`s executive VP and GM of Mobility Group, Sean Maloney, says continued advancements in Intel`s end-to-end wireless networks and wireless clients` technology will continue to fuel market growth in mobile computing.

Speaking at Intel`s Developer Forum in San Francisco yesterday, he said demand by end users for better mobility was driving development of mobile devices in general.

"This is clear to see because of the staggering growth seen over the past 10 years in the number of mobile devices on the market," he said.

He noted that the three pillars that would drive the further growth would be the advancement of the phone platform, broadband networking devices and the notebook platform.

"Currently, what really limits the performance of most devices is the lack of adequate bandwidth," he noted.

Maloney said this was bound to change with the growth of EDGE technology in the US, CDMA technology in regions such as Asia and the proliferation of Vodafone`s broadband technology in the EMEA region.

All this, he added, was generating demand for devices to perform better but at lower power consumption levels.

"More and more phones are coming standard with increased computing functionality and we are also seeing vendors developing more advanced software for cellular phones, while at the same time Flash memory seems to be making an impressive comeback," he added.

He projected that the next three to five years would see phones being developed with more memory capacity and the ability to seamlessly jump on and off high-speed bandwidth networks.

Maloney said he also saw phones having better integration with notebook computers through technologies like Bluetooth and Centrino. "The general idea is to start making phones and notebook computers more aware of each other so that they can better exploit each other," he said.

Basically, the major goal by vendors is to shrink the size of the components in order to enable them to fit in smaller devices, he said.