Bill Pechey

Last month, I made my annual visit to the Excel centre to visit the Symbian Smartphone Show. The event is always a good way to figure out what is likely to happen in the future because the chip vendors and development system people are there. Their products have to anticipate what the developers and the end-users will want.

There is always an upbeat presentation from Symbian about its new ideas and its position in the market. That the Symbian operating system is in 72 per cent of smartphones shipped adds weight to the words. The trend towards more capable mobiles is continuing; Symbian talked about better video capabilities, higher data rates and a movement towards multi-core processors.

Several exhibitors echoed this and predicted that future pocket-sized devices could replace the laptop computer for many people. This idea might sound a bit far-fetched but many of the components needed are already being shipped. For example, it is now practicable to run a PowerPoint presentation from a smartphone.

The main problem to be solved is that of data entry; the tiny keyboards currently used are not up to the task. External Bluetooth keyboards are available but I suspect that some of the increased processing capabilities may be used for speech recognition, resulting in a more compact system. Somehow, the idea of speaking into a mobile phone (but not on trains, please!) is not quite as alien as talking to a desktop computer, so it may just catch on. VisionObjects showed an impressive handwriting recognition system that could also help to solve the input problem. Among the exhibitors was the usual clutch of ever impressive push email systems, some of which are available in lightweight form for free.

There is a growing awareness among corporates that significant amounts of confidential information is stored on smartphones, and schemes are now available that can back up all the phone’s data centrally, delete it from the mobile if it is stolen and load it into the replacement. Companies should examine the security risk carefully.

It is becoming clear that, in the consumer market at least, advertising will play a larger part in the way mobiles are used and financed. One example, shown by MobiComp, was a ticker-like display that pops up when the phone is not being used and shows adverts and other information provided by the network operator. The idea is that the operator can make users aware of new services that may appeal. In some cases, the user can select what sort of information is delivered. Of course, targeted advertisements could be delivered on any subject. I fear that we will see much more of this sort of thing in the future. Perhaps that’s progress.

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