The average smartphone today has a number of radios to serve all the communications functions being crammed onboard this compact portable device. To start, there’s the 3G or CDMA transceiver. Next, comes Bluetooth, the second most pervasive transceiver in today’s handset, according to Scottsdale, Arizona market research firm In-Stat. After Bluetooth, WiFi is the next most prevalent receiver. Finally, the GPS receiver is the last of the radios found on these devices, though more are planned. They include NFC (near field communication) and RFID. The former is typically used on application like automatic toll taking and the latter for tagging merchandise or automotive keyless entry. NFC is the technology associated with electronic money—paying for fast food or favorite café latte. With such a large number of radios, the average smartphone is beginning to look like a miniature microwave antenna farm.
Bluetooth was intended initially as a personal area network for moving voice and data very short distances. However, with the advent of large multimedia files, Bluetooth is being pushed—Bluetooth 3.0—into higher data rates to accommodate video and picture sharing phone to phone or phone to consumer device or PC. While Bluetooth has been pushing up in speed, WiFi—initially added to handsets to allow Internet browsing at local hotspots is being offered as the natural means of transferring multimedia files. WiFi is being pushed with the latest version—802.11N—to achieve data rate from 54 Mbit/s to a maximum of 600 Mbit/s. “Wi-Fi's penetration into handsets has more momentum than the bad economy,” says industry analyst Michael Morgan with Oyster Bay, NY-based ABI Research. "This year WiFi is on track to see 144 million handsets shipped, with forecasts for 2011 at just over 300 million."
Look for GPS to be the next radio to begin receiving from the average smartphone, thanks to national legislation that requires phones transmit their position for emergency response teams. Boston, Mass. Market research firm Strategy Analytics reckons “global GPS penetration of total handset shipments reached 15% worldwide in 2008 and is expected to reach 21% by the end of 2009. “ Fuelled by the Oct-07 acquisition of NavTeq, Nokia GPS enabled smartphones dominate the global market. But with increasing interest in navigation and mapping apps, Research in Motion and, particularly Apple, are closing in on Nokia's lead.
Which of the other radios possible on a cellphone will experience similar explosive growth is anyone’s guess, but one is sure to emerge.
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