October 2006 Archives

The use of cell phones has changed society yet again. This time, the change took place at Detroit Metro Airport, where officials noticed that the pickup/dropoff lane for the L.C. Smith Terminal was getting crowded when vehicles idled at the curb waiting for passengers who were still in the airport somewhere.

To reduce the congestion, the airport created a “cell phone waiting lane” where cars can wait while the driver calls the person being picked up, arranges the exact pickup time, and then pulls up to the regular pickup/dropoff lane once the person is actually there and ready to hop into the vehicle.

Here’s a diagram of Detroit Metro’s new cell phone waiting lane (marked by blue arrow).

Rumors have been flying around the past few days that Apple’s next generation of iPods will use touchscreen based navigation instead of its iconic scroll-wheel.

The rumors are based on Apple’s Oct. 26 filing for a patent (20060238517) to protect an “Electronic Device Having Display and Surrounding Touch Sensitive Bezel for User Interface and Control.”

TG Daily blogger Mark Raby noted in an Oct. 27 post that this patent bears some similarities to another one (20060242114, “Method and apparatus for configuring a computer”) filed recently by Apple, apparently related to a possible tablet computer. But, the electronic device patent seems more geared to an iPod.

“While the patent doesn’t specifically say the application is targeted for use in a media player,” Raby writes in reference to patent #20060238517, “it does include various potential diagrams of portable devices that could use the technology, and buried in there is a portable media player.”

Raby continues: “According to the patent, controls would be handled outside of the main display, as opposed to a point-and-click, stylus-based application.”

The Inquirer blogger Nick Farrell said in an Oct. 30 post that specs in the electronic device patent seem to indicate Apple may be working on incorporating a digital camera into the iPod—indicating that “Apple wants an iPodcam with touch-screen capability to switch back and forth between music-player and camera modes.”

Farrell continued: “Of course if you have a touch screen, it is less likely that you would need that wheel on the front, unless you would use it to get to more touch screens. However the diagrams in the patent suggest that the wheel is unnecessary.”

Apple keeps such tight control over its product development that, for now, all anyone can do is speculate regarding what will come out of Cupertina, CA next. What do you think Apple has up its sleeve?

If you find it too difficult to check the weather by using a website like weather.com, you could always look out the window. Or, even easier, you could simply glance at your Brookstone 5-Day Wireless Weather Forecaster, which displays weather data obtained by radio signal from AccuWeather.

Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated in any way with Brookstone or AccuWeather. I just think this is a cool gadget.

I happened across Brookstone’s new weather product while perusing newsfeeds this afternoon. Not only does it wirelessly get the forecast, but also detects where you live to provide your local weather. (I assume it does this using some form of GPS; the company’s product page doesn’t specify.)

The Brookstone forecaster retails for $85.00. Now you know what to get for that person who has everything, and thinks technology is cool but doesn’t want it to be difficult to use.

The big wireless news so far this week is T-Mobile’s launch of its dual-mode WiFi/Cellular service in Seattle.

TMCnet Associate Editor Patrick Barnard reported yesterday that the new service “lets T-Mobile’s subscribers make free phone calls using their at-home WiFi network or from any number of public WiFi hot spots which have been set up throughout the city. For now, only subscribers using the Nokia 6136 and the Samsung T709 dual mode phones can place free calls over WiFi.”

The new service uses Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology, which was developed by Kineto Wireless and is now part of 3rd Generation Partnership Project’s (3GPP) standards. (T-Mobile also is using femtocell technology to enhance wireless network coverage, according to TMCnet Executive Editor Robert Liu.)

Liu, who reported last month on T-Mobile’s service ahead of its official deployment in Seattle, corresponded today by e-mail with Kineto Director of Marketing Steve Shaw, to get some additional details about how the service functions.

In an e-mail correspondence, Shaw told Liu that UMA enables true seamless handover between WiFi and cellular networks, “without any noticeable (sub 50 msec) service interruption.”

UMA enables this functionality, Shaw explained, because it works in the same way as a base station  controller in a cellular network.

“When you drive across town, your GSM call is seamlessly handed between BSCs and radio antennas as you drive,” Shaw said. “UMA uses the exact same technology to accomplish call handovers.”

For subscribers, the benefits are pretty obvious: the ability to conserve cell phone minutes and make calls from any location. Using the service in a WiFi hotspot (T-Mobile says it plans to increase the number of hotspots it already maintains) gives subscribers access to transfer speeds faster than even 3G cellular—making it possible to download content such as music, videos, and games.

T-Mobile wins first prize when it comes to rolling out national, U.S. dual-mode service—but lags somewhat behind in the global race. British Telecom was first to market globally, with the roll-out of its Fusion a year ago June. TeliaSonera’s dual-mode service, Home Free, followed suit earlier this fall, and Orange’s unik was fast on its heels. Telecom Italia also launched a dual-mode service last month.

In his article, Barnard raises some questions about how T-Mobile will handle billing of the service—specifically, whether or not it will be difficult for subscribers to keep track of how many cellular minutes they’ve used. I won’t be a spoiler, though—check out the article yourself to see some of the questions T-Mobile hasn’t yet answered about its new service.

The biggest question I still have is: are consumers actually interested in dual-mode services? I suspect the answer will lie in how easy the new services are to use, and to what extent they help people save money on their phone bills. 

On Monday, the iPod celebrated its fifth birthday. To celebrate this momentous event,analysts and commentators over the past day or so have been opining about the success of Apple’s MP3 player.

A common theme among the iPod birthday stories I’ve been perusing this morning seems to be analysis of just exactly how and why Apple came to dominate the MP3 player market in such a relatively short amount of time. Lots of people, not least manufacturers like Microsoft (which plans to release its Zune MP3 player in time for Christmas) of competing products would love to crack the winning code.

Two of the more interesting pieces (in my opinion) exploring how Apple infected the world with iPod fandom, are a PC Magazine article published on abcnews.com and a blog entry by PC World’s Harry McCracken.

In the PC Magazine article, Mike Kobrin notes that Apple captured 27 percent of the MP3 player market (pushing aside competitors like Archos and Creative) within a year of launching the iPod—and then goes on to list some of the reasons why he thinks the company has been so successful.

According to Kobrin, Apple’s success can be attributed to the following factors:

1. iPod dominated quickly because of its sleek design, innovative scroll wheel, and user-friendly music management software.

2. The iPod represented a leap forward in simplicity, and part of that was achieved by using what Kobrin describes as “a close system, requiring Apple’s software (and originally, Apple’s hardware as well).”

3. Apple’s iTunes Music Store was the lynchpin in capturing and keeping customers. The company created a complete system for obtaining, managing and using digital music.

4. Despite lots of competitor products (from companies like Microsoft, Cowan, Creative, Archos, iriver and SanDisk), the iPod still “is easiest to use and works very well.”

Kobrin does note that some people “are starting to wonder whether Steve Jobs is letting the iPod stagnate for longer than he should without any serious hardware-based innovation besides diminishing form factor and increasing capacity.” Yet he predicts that, “ even if Steve Jobs doesn't push through any radically new hardware designs or features, the iPod will see continued success.”

In the PC World blog entry, McCracken proposes a similar list of reasons why the iPod has been so successful.

1. What people really want is for entertainment to be as simple as pushing a “play” button. “The iPod comes far closer to meeting that ideal than any competitor, in part because it just doesn't all that many features,” McCracken says. “Which is why countless devices with more stuff at a lower price have failed to unseat it.”

2. Apple created a digital rights management system (DRM) that is as transparent as possible. iTunes incorporates a decent set of rules for what you can and cannot do with your music, which contrasts sharply with “the poke-in-the-eye-with-a-sharp stick that is Microsoft's digital rights management technology”.

3. iPod didn’t require people to reinvent all of their existing entertainment habits. iPod lets users carry the equivalent of a CD collection in their pockets, and purchase music in a similar way to purchasing CDs (the difference being its in digital format rather than on a disc).

4. iPod’s small form factor has been a vital element in its success. The MP3 player was “the first one that comfortably fit into your pocket. And Apple has been smart to continually release iPods that are thinner and smaller than those before them.”

Like Kobrin, McCracken warns that “technological races are never, ever over.” Unlike Kobrin, McCracken refrains from making a prediction regarding whether iPod will stay successful during the next five years.

“A smart company with cool products could still enter the field today and do to the iPod what it did to everything that proceeded it,” McCracken notes.

Anyone out there want to hazard a guess as to which companies might possibly unseat the iPod? I’m holding my tongue for now—best to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I’m eyeing the new 8GB iPod Nano...

We’d all like to believe that the medical equipment found in hospitals is efficiently managed, so that if we need it, it’s readily available. But apparently, that’s not always the case.

In a new report out today, ABI Research says that, at any given moment, much of the expensive equipment owned by hospitals—everything from low-tech wheelchairs to high-tech machinery—is hard to find because it’s either already being used, or is in storage. The result is that hospitals tend to over-purchase this type of inventory, and then not utilize it efficiently.

Two wireless technologies currently are vying for position to provide hospitals with better systems for managing their equipment inventories, ABI says: WiFi and active RFID (tags with internal power source).

ABI quotes analyst Sara Shah as saying that less than 5 percent of North American health care facilities are equipped with what are known in the industry as real-time locating systems (RTLSs), so the market truly is up for grabs.

The advantage of WiFi-based RTLSs, Shah says, is that most hospitals already have WiFi networks in place, and many medical devices are equipped with WiFi functionality.

“The value proposition is that they can keep their existing infrastructure and add new elements,” Shah said of WiFi-based RTLSs for hospitals, in the report.

She added that WiFi RTLS vendors such as Aeroscout, Ekahau and PanGo market their products based in part on the fact that they’re standards-based and non-proprietary. The downside of WiFi-based systems is that hospitals will need to install additional access points to bring the needed functionality to existing networks.

“On the other hand, RFID vendors such as RF Code and Radianse point to the wide application of RFID for asset tracking, and their longevity in the industry,” ABI says.

It is true that RFID technology has been around for quite a while. The Wikipedia entry for RFID says that “The technology used in RFID has been around since the early 1920s,” and “The United States Department of Defense has successfully used active tags to reduce logistics costs and improve supply chain visibility for more than 15 years.”

But, RFID tags remain controversial because some people believe their ability to efficiently track consumer goods (and, as a result, consumer behavior) poses a threat to privacy.

My first, uneducated prediction based on the ABI report and what I know about RFID and WiFi was that WiFi will win out. Why? Because WiFi seems more ubiquitous than RFID, and RFID is controversial.

But then, I did some quick research and learned that, apparently, some of the vendors ABI mentions seem unsure themselves regarding which technology will catch on for RTLS applications. For example, the introductory blurb on Aeroscout’s Web site indicates that the company’s system uses both WiFi and RFID.

The got me intrigued, so I took a quick look at the other vendors mentioned. PanGo advertises several product lines, including Active RFID Tag, which uses RFID tags and 802.11 signal to track inventory.

Of the three WiFi vendors mentioned, only Ekahau makes a point of stressing that its inventory system is based only on WiFi and not RFID. So, apparently, the issue isn’t quite as clear cut as I first thought. Maybe it will take both technologies to deploy RTLSs the work for hospitals.

I also performed a related search on Google that included both “RFID” and “Wifi” [+("health care" OR hospital) +(inventory OR "asset management") +(RFID OR wifi OR wi-fi)], and an interesting thing happened—the majority of results on the first page were about RFID-based inventory systems for hospitals, rather than WiFi.

Hmm…. So does that mean there really are more vendors out there selling RFID RTLS products for hospitals, or just that they are better at SEO than their WiFi counterparts? <wink>

The jury obviously still is out on this one. What do you think?

All week, a new report out from ABI Research about femtocell technology has been burning a hole in my pocket. Friday has arrived, so it’s time to comment or throw this into the “never got to it” pile.

In the report, ABI predicts that, by 2011, annual worldwide shipments of femtocell products will reach 19 million units. The research firm predicts that “Initial offerings are likely to be simple affairs that rely on Ethernet connections to existing ADSL gateways.”

I’ve noticed that there’s been a fair amount of commentary recently regarding femtocells, but I have to admit that I’ve been a bit sketchy on just exactly what the technology does and why it’s significant. To hopefully offer a bit of perspective on the topic, this morning I did some looking around to become better educated.

The first thing I discovered is just how new femtocell technology is—it doesn’t even have its own Wikipedia entry yet. I also wasn’t able to find any definitions for the technology using Google’s “define:” search (define:femtocell).

The technology is so new that not much research has been done about it, either. In fact, of the industry research firms that I regularly keep tabs on (ABI Research, Frost & Sullivan, Gartner, IDC, In-Stat, Jupiter Research and Yankee Group), only ABI seems to have been basing any of its predictions on femtocell development and adoption.

Therefore, I returned to ABI to learn more. In a report published August 23 (which I referenced in a September 21 article about dual-mode handsets), the research firm described femtocells as “small cellular base stations designed for use in residential or corporate environments.”

ABI predicted that—attracted by the lure of improved network efficiency, reduced churn, and better in-building wireless coverage—operators wanting to roll out triple play/dual-mode services will begin adopting the new technology in droves.

Specfically, ABI predicted that “by 2011 there will be 102 million users of femtocell products on 32 million access points worldwide.”

In the Aug. 23 report, ABI analyst Stuart Carlaw said that, beyond the benefits mentioned above, femtocells also “can form the basis of a viable option for realizing converged fixed-mobile services. They give operators a cost-effective way to support fixed-mobile substitution, as well as a platform in the home upon which additional features such as Wi-Fi and IPTV can be layered.”

In the latest report I mentioned at the start of this blog entry, ABI said that it’s research into femtocells indicate that when it comes to triple play/dual-mode implementations, the “holy grail” is a deployment that incorporates “a Wi-Fi access point, an integrated ADSL gateway and an IPTV set-top box.”

So it sounds as if femtocells, beyond being a technology that can enable dual-mode services, also have the added benefit of allowing providers to more cheaply add other types of services—such as IPTV—to create triple play/quad play bundles.

And, when it comes to multi-play bundles, one of the main attractions for operators is the ability to cut down on customer churn and increase revenues. After all, if an operator offers a variety of quality services (emphasis on quality here), it may be able to get a customer not only to stick around, but to purchase all of those services to cut down on the cost of each and only have to deal with a single bill.

In a recent article about T-Mobile’s testing of UMA and femtocell for dual-mode services, TMCnet Executive Editor Robert Liu touched on both the churn and quality issues.

T-Mobile, Liu noted, “one of the first operators to harness the power of WiFi.” It’s HotSpot service is a keystone of the company’s wireless broadband strategy. One problem, though, has been the spotty nature of WiFi service, which Liu said has lessened its impact.

Liu said that T-Mobile’s plans to deploy dual-mode services may include not only UMA technology but femtocells as well, since they enable “more comprehensive coverage at the far edge of the network.”

Liu quoted Current Analysis analyst Peter Jarich as saying, “One of the major reasons for people to switch is poor coverage. Why would I switch if Femtocell technology is enhancing coverage? I'm probably not going to switch.”

Based on all this, I’m going put forward my own definition for femtocells: small cellular base stations that provide enhanced coverage at the far edge of the network.

Do you have a better definition? Please let me know.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from one David Fish, an attorney at The Collins Law Firm in Naperville, IL, alerting me to a new lawsuit against Motorola for allegedly manufacturing Bluetooth headsets that endanger the hearing of users.

Fish, who specializes in business, securities and tort litigation, described this lawsuit as “a very significant case---and if the facts turn out to true, a very important case.”

Curious, I decided to check it out. In an Oct. 18 post on his blog, Fish explained that the lawsuit (Alpert v. Motorola, et al, 06-cv-5586)—brought by defense firm Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney—was filed in Federal Court in Chicago, and alleges that Motorola’s Bluetooth headsets can cause hearing loss.

“The complaint claims that exposure to sounds emitted from the headsets, even for time periods as short as a few minutes, can cause serious and permanent hearing loss,” Fish wrote.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) hasn’t yet formally ratified its 802.11n wireless standard, but manufacturers already are planning or releasing products based on the draft specification. The latest to do so is D-Link, which today announced three new wireless devices based on draft 802.11n technology.

D-Link’s new products are the Link Xtreme N Gigabit Router, and two accompanying desktop and notebook adapters—DWA-552 and DWA-652. All three products, the company said in its press release, “are designed for consumers, small businesses and gamers who demand the highest performance possible from their wireless networks.”

One of the key selling points of the new products is their potential, according to D-Link, to deliver wireless speeds up to 14 times faster than 802.11g.

A PC Pro report yesterday noted that speed and reliability are key reasons why many manufacturers—including Belkin, Linsys, and US Robotics—now are offering products using the draft 802.11n specification, ahead of its official ratification.

“Offering broader bandwidths and engineered for quality of service, 802.11n promises the ability to stream video and audio wirelessly around the home in a more robust and reliable manner,” reporter Matt Whipp wrote in the PC Pro report.

Wikipedia’s entry for 802.11 notes that the new 802.11n specification “builds upon previous 802.11 standards by adding MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output). MIMO uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas to allow for increased data throughput…”

According to Wikipedia, 802.11n is projected for official ratification in 2007, and promises to deliver a maximum data rate of 540 Mbps and a range of about 160 feet. The standard is being developed by IEEE’s task group for wireless local-area networks (WLANs), which was formed in January of 2004.

This past May, Wikipedia notes, IEEE’s 802.11 Working Group voted on Draft 1.0 of the proposed 802.11n standard, and the new specification fell short of majority, receiving approving votes of only 46.6 percent.

“To proceed to the next step in the IEEE process, a majority vote of 75 percent is required,” Wikipedia says. “According to the IEEE 802.11 Working Group Project Timelines,[2] the 802.11n standard is not due for final approval until July 2007.”

Wikipedia further notes that 802.11n draft technology can interfere with 802.11b and 802.11g networks. Despite this potential glitch, it appears manufacturers aren’t willing to wait for the kinks to be worked out—they’re moving ahead with the new technology, wrinkles and all.

Rumors started flying yesterday about a possible “iPhone” from Apple after a post appeared on the Apple Insider blog citing information from Prudential Equity Group analyst Jesse Tortora, who said in a research note that Apple will begin offering two iPod-based cell phones during the first quarter of 2007.

According to the Apple Insider report, one of the phones will be a smart phone (with integrated keyboard, video and music capabilities) and the other will be a smaller phone with music functionality only. At least one of the phones, Tortora said, will include WiFi capabilities.

The new phones reportedly will be launched in small numbers at first as a market test.

“Although these phones represent significant upside earnings potential for the company, there are some concerns regarding market acceptance and battery life, given the number of functions included in the phones,” Tortora is quoted as saying in the research note.

Some of the blogosphere responses to Tortora’s research note include references to Apple’s application for the “iPhone” trademark. A few posts, such as this one from U.K.-based TechDigest, suggest that the trademark application was made recently and as such is further evidence of Apple’s plans to soon introduce its own cell phone.

But, business lawyer David Canton (who works for the firm of Harrison Pensa in London) wrote

“The blogosphere has a couple of mentions about an article on the AppleInsider that points to a recent Apple trade-mark application for ‘iPhone’ in a ‘Far Eastern’ trade-mark office,” Canton writes. “Apple applied for the iPhone trade-mark in Canada in October 2004. Note the Canadian application has been opposed by Comwave Telecom, which has also filed an application for iPhone.”

Out of curiosity, I popped over to the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office Web site to see if there were any applications on file there for iPhone. I found four records for “iPhone” by itself (the term also shows up in five other records combined with other words). Below are summaries of the records.

Record 1: “Telephone that integrates a display and interactive abilities with an IP-based network to deliver both voice communication and graphic-based content and services to hotel guestrooms.” Filed March 7, 2005 by Teledex, LLC in San Jose, CA.

Record 2: “Handheld and mobile digital electronic devices for the sending and receiving of telephone calls, faxes, electronic mail, and other digital data…” Filed September 26, 2006 by Ocean Telecom Services LLC in Wilmington, DE.

Record 3: “Computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks.” Filed March 20, 1996 by Cisco Tecnology [sic] in San Jose, CA.

Record 4 (marked “abandoned”): “Telecommunications services, namely provision of telecommunications services for an electronic data network.” Filed April 25, 1994 by Stephen J. Page of Pleasanton, CA.

Whether or not the trademark component of the story is truly important, one thing seems certain: we’ll be hearing a lot more about iPhone in the coming weeks and months.

Sifting through various wireless-related news this morning, I came across a report from In-Stat dated Oct. 11 (I must have lost track of it among all the IT EXPO related news) in which the research firm discusses a recent survey it conducted that found users of 3G mobile phones are more interested in navigation applications than watching video.

In-Stat notes that the results of its survey are a surprise, since video has been touted for some time now as being the “killer application” for next-gen mobile services.

If the survey’s 1,000+ respondents do indeed represent reality, it means carriers and vendors have some quick legwork to perform—notably, In-Stat says, by expanding the availability of GPS and A-GPS-compatible handsets.

“Unfortunately, technology choices left over from the 1990s make this difficult but carriers and handset vendors are starting to provide an increasing flow of products that better meet the 3G customers’ needs,” In-Stat analyst David Chamberlain is quoted as saying in the report.

In a Chicago Tribune article about In-Stat’s survey, reporter Jon Van characterizes the respondents as “early adopters and business users of mobile phones on the market.” Van quoted Chamberlain as saying that only 15 percent of respondents were interested in mobile video, while 53 percent were interested in navigational applications.

I am curious about the “early adopters” classification. Somehow I would have expected that such users would be more interested in the “cool” or “fun” aspects of new technology, rather than their practical applications. After all, any new technology has kinks to work out at first, and often that means only someone who is really “into” technology for its own sake is willing to put up with the glitches.

Then again, maybe navigational applications are fun and cool, too.

“People like the idea of getting directions from their phone to take them to their destination," Chamberlain is quoted as saying in the Tribune article. “They like getting suggestions about restaurants nearby and how to find them.”

I admit that I haven’t yet used such an application on a mobile phone, although I do MapQuest destinations all the time so I can see how being able to access directions and related info while on the go would be useful—and fun, too.

What do you think?

Here is an interesting article about fixed-mobile convergence, by Computerworld Australia’s Darren Pauli, that appeared in the October 9 edition of TechWorld.com. Pauli predicts that, despite all the talk about dual-mode (WiFi/Cellular) telephone services and handsets, most companies will hold off another five years or more before jumping on board with the new technology.

The reason, Pauli says, is that “while FMC promises reduced call costs, access to multiple communication lines via one number and seamless network switching, the mobile technology behind it is dragging its feet.”

Pauli quotes Paul Budde of BuddeCom as saying that FMC won’t take off until mobile carriers are forced into deploying next generation networks. By “next generation networks” Budde refers to IP-based networks, which he says are “needed on both the mobile and fixed sides,” meaning that “mobile networks will need to replace 3G with a true IP wireless network”—be it 4G, WiMAX, or IMS.

In other words, there may be business drivers now for FMC services, but the network technologies on the carrier end just aren’t yet capable of delivering those services on a large scale.

This kind of reminds me of the mid-1990s when the library I worked for signed up for DSL service that wasn’t actually deployed yet. Despite many promises from the provider involved, the service wasn’t actually delivered until more than six months after the library ordered it.

Time will tell just when (if?) the critical mass on both the consumer/enterprise and carrier/provider sides turns the promise of FMC into reality. I am also curious to see the business models developed by carriers to deliver a combination of VoIP and GSM services in a sustainably revenue-generating manner.

What do you think?

One of the items waiting in my Inbox this morning was a new report from ABI Research, predicting that by the end of 2008, 25 percent of WCDMA handsets will include GPS capabilities.

The research firm gives four main reasons why it thinks its prediction is accurate:

• Regulatory requirements are inducing vendors to include GPS in their products

• Staying competitive may require adding GPS

• GPS may be attractive to carriers looking for a way to increase ARPU and recoup costs associated with licensing 3G spectrum

• Consumers increasingly are demanding applications, such as portable navigation, that require GPS

ABI thinks that GSM carriers will begin issuing RFQs for GPS during 2007, which will be followed by vendor selection. By the end of the following year, ABI predicts, average selling price of GPS chipsets will drop to $2.70.

In the report. ABI analyst Alan Varghese notes that, for the past several years SiRF has been the leader when it comes to GPS integrated circuits. But he predicts that the company will soon be facing competition from Amtel (based in California)/ublox (based in Switzerland), Global Locate (based in California), GloNav (based in California), Nemerix (based on Switzerland), Texas Instruments (based in Texas) and uNav (based in California).

On the consumer end of things, I would predict that GPS is most attractive for the same reasons cell phones are in demand: convenience and safety. For convenience, GPS enables map-based applications. For safety, GPS applications (like OnStar, for example) help emergency responders quickly locate people in danger and deploy appropriate help in a timely manner.

Only time will tell whether ABI is correct in its predictions, but it’s not outside the realm of reasonableness given the trend is toward communications devices that perform many functions (PDA and phone, for example).

What do you think?

Last week, I blogged about D-Link’s launch of its new, dual-mode handset—the V-Click—and noted that the only other comparable product slated for availability soon is Paragon Wireless’ hip-2200. It appears I may have spoken too soon.

According to an Associated Press report that hit the wires Friday, by year’s end T-Mobile plans to launch its own dual-mode handset and companion service. The service reportedly will be rolled out using Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology.

AP reported that the news came from Robert Dotson, CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG (T-Mobile’s parent company), who hinted that the new service and handset likely will be rolled out initially in Seattle, Washington, where T-Mobile is headquartered.

No news yet about how much the handsets, or the service, will cost.

So stay tuned—dual mode voice service may be arriving sooner than you thought, at least if you live in Seattle.