The Future is Mobile

May 19, 2008

The Center for Disease Control (why this organization, we are still wondering) has recently published a study that shows that traditional landline subscribers are rapidly dropping in numbers. In fact, in January 2004 the percentage of adults living in households with only mobile service was 4.4%. But, at the end of 2007, that number had increased to 14.5%. At the same time, the percentage of adults living without telephone service has remained relatively unchanged, according to the report. This leads us to assume the United States is going mobile.

Further, looking at the demographic data it is clear that the move to mobility stretches across all classes in society. This trend is not surprising, but the pace certainly is. Clearly, everybody prefers the convenience of mobility.

At the same time, AT&T is actively working to increase wireless broadband access speeds. What this means is that we will continue to see demand for mobile devices, as more features and capabilities are made available. We might very well see an even bigger shift in the way people access information and e-mail.

What does this mean for the IPMC industry? Prospects could not look better. With growth in broadband access rates and the increased utilization of video, we are looking forward to even more communications capabilities than ever before. The exports from companies around the world working in ITU-T's multimedia communication area are actively working on a new multimedia system called the Advanced Multimedia System, or H.325. This new technology will take full advantage of the capabilities of mobile devices, enabling users to use their mobile phones in conjunction with a laptop or desktop computer, an LCD flat panel LCD screen hanging on a wall or in the back seat of a taxi, or even a stand-alone, interactive whiteboard like those from SMART Technologies.

We are entering a new age of communications with capabilities that will enable devices to interact with each other and to utilize the various devices in order to realize significantly more advanced communications functionality than we have ever had available before.