8 Mobile Technologies to Watch in 2009,

2010
Analyst firm Gartner has just released a report that highlights eight
up-and-coming mobile technologies which they predict will impact
the mobile industry over the course of the next two years. According
to Nick Jones vice president and analyst at the firm the
technologies they!ve identified will evolve "uickly and will likely
pose issues that will have to be addressed by short term strategies.
#he eight technologies identified include the following$
Bluetooth 3.0
#his is one of the no-brainers on the list. #he %luetooth &.' specification will be
released this year and devices will start to hit the shelves by (')'. At this point it!s
expected that the &.' spec will include faster speeds reportedly transferring files at
*+' megabits per second in close proximity and )'' megabits per second at )'
meters. ,t will also feature an ultra-low-power mode that Gartner predicts will
enable new peripherals sensors and applications such as health monitoring. #he technology
will be backwards compatible allowing old devices to communicate with new ones so
there!s no reason for it not take off in the upcoming years.
Mobile User Interfaces + Mobile Web/Widgets
-obile user interfaces and mobile web.widgets were listed separately accounting for two
items on the list but we think they can be lumped together. #hey all point to how mobile
computing is rapidly becoming a new platform for everything from consumer mobile apps to
%(/ 0business-to-employee1 and %(2 0business-to-customer1. 0Gartner did not include %(%
on their list.1 -odern day smartphones like the i3hone Android %lackberry the upcoming
3re and others deliver better interfaces for browsing the web thus making it accessible to
more people. 4idget-like applications including those that replicate thin client technology
will become more common especially in %(2 strategies. 5et the mobile web still has
challenges ahead. 6or example there are no standards for browser access to handset services
like the camera or G37 the report notes.
Location Awareness
8ocation sensing powered by G37 as well as 4i-6i and triangulation opens up new
possibilities for mobile social networking and presence applications. #echnology!s earliest
adopters are already familiar with social networks like %rightkite and 8oopt which let you
reveal your location to a network of friends. %ut we!re still on the tip of this iceberg. #ake for
example the i3hone ,- client 3alringo they!re just now adding location services to their
application. #his allows users to see how far away their contacts are introducing a whole new
dimension to mobile communication. 9ver the next year or two this sort of technology is
expected to become more commonplace but it will also raise "uestions about privacy. 4ill
you want your network of online friends and ac"uaintances to really know your exact
location: 4ill turning off location awareness signal that you!re up to something sneaky 0so
asks the suspicious wife, husband, boss, etc.): As a society we will have to answer these
"uestions and more in the near future.
Near ield !o""unication #N!$
N62 is a technology that provides a way for consumers to use their
mobile phones for making payments among other things. ,t!s
something that has taken off in many countries worldwide but
certainly not all and definitely not in the ;nited 7tates just yet.
;nfortunately Gartner predicts that the move towards mobile
payment systems will still not occur this year or the next in mature
markets like the ;.7. and 4estern /urope. ,nstead N62 is more
likely to take off in emerging markets. 9ther uses of the technology
such as the ability to transfer photos from phone to digital photo frames will also remain
elusive to more developed markets.
%0&.''n ( !ellular Broadband
+'(.))n a specification for wireless local area networks 048ANs1 initially gave us pause.
Although not ratified as an official standard yet the technology is already commonplace.
<owever until it =goes gold= so to speak it won!t really infiltrate the mobile world. /ven the
ubi"uitous i3hone only supports +'(.)) b.g at the moment.
9n the flip side the other internet connection technology cellular broadband has the
potential to make 4i-6i almost unnecessary at least for achieving high speeds. ,n addition to
mobile phones laptop makers will likely continue to incorporate this technology into their
netbooks and notebooks using modern chipsets that provide superior performance to our
current crop of add-on cards and dongles.
)is*la+ ,echnologies
>isplay technologies will also see improvements in the upcoming
years. New technologies like active pixel displays passive displays
and pico projectors will have an impact. 3ico projectors - the tiny
portable projectors we saw being introduced at this year!s 2/7 - will
enable new mobile use cases. ,nstant presentations in informal settings
could become more common when there isn!t large cumbersome
e"uipment to set up. #he different types of display technologies introduced in (''? and (')'
will become important differentiators between devices and will impact user selection
criterion says Gartner.