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Cellular and Computing Industries Finally Collide

magarity writes "For years now cell phones have become increasing complex as computers become ever smaller. The two industries now directly collide. Of special interest is the change in mission statement by Microsoft from 'a computer on every desk and in every home' to 'empowering people through great software, any time, any place and on any device.' With mobile phone saturation in the industrialized world from +80% (Italy) to 45% (USA), this is the next battleground for information technology dominance. Both industries have giant sized players; the shakeouts, as well as implications for consumers, will be huge."

6 of 293 comments (clear)

  1. shitty screens by muyuubyou · · Score: 3, Informative

    Now if they only produced better screens we could get some work done. The only working thing you can consider "computing" and "cellular" is the Treo.

    That WAP is shit. I can tell you as I have some experience (Nokia, Siemens, Sony, Ericsson, Alcatel, everyone plays his own game, with large differences in the ways things are shown). We have to go directly for web or for Java. I've tested some Nokias and Alcatels. For instance, Alcatel 525 WAP browser, in forms, it doesn't show you the next input till you've filled it!!

  2. Re:well duh by nogoodmonkey · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not sure if you are trying to be funny, but Italy is roughly 301,000 sq km, and New Jersey is rougly 19,215 sq km.

  3. Another article in the same issue of economist by HashDefine · · Score: 3, Informative
  4. Re:well duh by muyuubyou · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not that. Penetration measures against population. That is, 80% of the Italians (some 80 million, not so small) own a cell phone. Italy, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Spain, Netherlands, ... have more users than the USA per inhabitant.

    With such differences, it's not a matter of infrastructure. You can take only those regions with coverage and the difference would still be there. The problem is in the offer.

  5. Re:Europeans will have the edge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    err...so northern Finland is a highly populated area? I go there quite a lot, and believe me, it's pretty quiet.
    Market saturation is done on 'per capita' not 'per square km'...

  6. Might be necessity, not increased acceptance... by Gruneun · · Score: 3, Informative

    While we were living in Italy, we were one of the fortunate people, through military contacts, who could procure a land line quickly and with very little effort. It wasn't an "old world" area, but the group in charge of telephones didn't generally feel pressured to move quickly. I'm not sure how much has changed in the last 10 years, but I would imagine that it's probably much easier to get a mobile phone than a land line, so "acceptance" is probably a sign of convenience, rather than progressive thinking.