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Think it's just a cell phone? Sure, you can make a call, but there's so much more in store
They've got keyboards and web browsers, sound cards and media players, operating systems and memory cards, but we never think of them as computers. Of course, I'm talking about our cell phones, the Swiss Army knives of the digital age. But precisely because we take cell phones so much for granted, it's good to assess where this so-called "third screen" (after television and computer screens) is headed. The future of communication seems to hinge on it.
Voice communications are going to play a very small part in the cell phone of the future. If you connect the dots between changes in the business of entertainment, news, text messaging, blogging, payment systems, search functions and e-commerce, you'll understand why the companies that offer diese systems all want a piece of the action. Those that will deliver content to your phone and help you access and manage it on the fly are vying to control the chips on which these phones run, and that tiny piece of real estate we call a screen.
Cell phones today have ample memory to handle not only graphics-laden presentations, but also music, video and podcasts. Most pack up to a dozen applications, too, but how many of them do you use? Consider what your job description might be if you had a phone capable of shooting digital movies. A company video that you could edit on the run and beam up to a corporate web site (or a video news release sent off to a media company) could launch you into PR. How about a Google phone that would allow you to search a word or a trademark during a meeting? Or a phone like the LG VX-9800-which looks like a compressed laptop, complete with keyboard-that makes blogging easy? Or one that allows you to create, store and beam PowerPoint presentations? We're not too far...