Stand by for one of those impressive sounding statistics used to illustrate the global significance of the not-so-humble mobile phone. By the year 2001, an estimated 500 million people world wide will be toting these increasingly sophisticated portable blowers. Eventually cellular penetration, as those in the biz like to call it, will exceed that of any other area of global communication. Mobile devices - but not as we know them - are about to change the world.
Meet Bluetooth. Formerly a plundering Danish Viking and presently the unlikely inspiration for the code name of a new technology being cooked up by whizz kids in some of the biggest mobile communications companies in the world.
Early this year, Nokia, Intel, IBM, Ericsson and Toshiba formed a special interest group to examine how a wide range of mobile devices can be connected quickly and easily without being linked by cumbersome cables.
Already, mobile phones are being used in ways that were unimaginable when their brick-like predeccessors were introduced.
They can receive faxes, send short messages and even connect to the Internet. In some countries the phone buzzes the user with their horoscopes or the latest football results.
Producers say these appropriately named smartphones have created a huge demand for new and more elaborate types of service. Inevitably, the real drivers of this industry are the users. According to Mr Heikka Rautilla, product manager with Nokia Mobile Phones, information age citizens want to be "connected all the time, but wired only occasionally". Mr Rautilla is based in Nokia house, near Helsinki in Finland, a gigantic glass building complete with a gym and sauna. From almost every part of the building there is a view of the sea or the sky making for an inspirational location in which to imagine and design the technologies of the future.
"Bluetooth is a small, inexpensive, short range radio link that is going to radically change mobile computing and communication," he says. It is, he adds, the Martini (anytime, anyplace, anywhere) of computing enabled by a chip that when inserted into various devices allows them to "talk" to each other within a forty metre range.
Yes, Yes Mr Heikka but what does that actually mean for the average mobile phone user? Quite a lot it transpires.
For example, a busy business man is sipping club soda in the airport lounge. His mobile phone rings. On the line is his laptop computer (by his side in its carry case) alerting him to the fact that he has received an email message. He can even read the email on the display of the mobile phone.
While away he meets new contacts and arranges new appointments. He updates the diary and address list on his laptop accordingly. The moment he walks into his own office, his wired PC has a little confab with his laptop and all the new information is automatically synchronised on to the PC.
Another Bluetooth innovation will be electronic postcards, which are apparently set to eliminate the demand for the terminally tacky "wish you were here" versions. Holiday makers will be able to connect their camera (cordlessly, of course) to their mobile phone. The instant image of Caribbean beaches or Egyptian pyramids is then sent to the PC or mobile device of the recipient.
While this may sound like a load of technological pie-in-the-sky, Bluetooth members (which also include Compaq, Dell and 3Com) are adamant that the first in a long line of such products will be revealed towards the end of next year.
Mr Liam Cahill, of Bluetooth member Intel in Leixlip, Co Kildare, says it is a serious initiative which will revolutionise the way we use communications devices.
"Perhaps more importantly, the fact that so many industry leaders are involved means a common standard will be established when the technology is introduced," he says. "Bluetooth will provide innovative uses for a whole range of remote devices." Of equal importance, he says, is a kind of cousin to Bluetooth, the StrongARM micro-proccessor product line.
StrongARM was recently acquired by Intel from Digital Equipment Corporation. Intel announced last week that key market segments they hope to develop include PC companions, smart mobile phones, mobile point of sale devices and digital TV set top products.
Intel is also a supporter of the Mobile Advisory Council, a group of original equipment manufacturers whose objective is to foster the growth of the mobile technology industry.
Increasingly, industry leaders are joining together in a bid to pool resources and skills and draw up road maps for the future.
In May, mobile phone giants Nokia and Ericcsson joined up with hand held computer manufacturer Psion to form a new joint venture called Symbian. Motorola has also indicated its willingness to join.
Symbian, says its founding partners, will enable its owners and licensees to create user-friendly, cost effective wireless information devices such as smartphones and communicators. According to Symbian's new CEO, Mr Colly Myers, the company "is the start of a new co-operative approach between the world's leading innovators in the mobile voice and data market".
The future is bright. The future is wireless.
