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Making Calls from Your Laptop Could be Possible Soon
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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India is on its way to rapidly become the largest mobile market on the globe, already being known as the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world. India is a huge market for mobile phone manufacturers and manufacturers of cell phone accessories. Over 15 manufacturers have made their products available in the market, with other small companies having their own fleet of phones. Even though the biggies like Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, Samsung lead the market, companies like Spice, Fly still manage a fair amount of sale.
The mobile technology is advancing by leaps and bounds. A host of new features are being introduced into your average mobile phones. A simple mobile with a color screen, which was not possible for less that Rs. 10,000 is now made available for a mere Rs. 3000. Other features too have seen plethora of improvements in the recent years. One can find that manufacturers are trying to add more and more ‘computer’-istic features to a mobile phone. Nokia’s Communicator line-up of phones, Sony Ericsson’s Pxxx series of phone and the phone that attracted the most hype, winning the ‘Gadget of the year’ award, the iPhone are all examples of phones where the manufacturer has almost cramped a whole computer into them. Each of the phone comes with a host of features such as a QWERTY keyboard, big screens and built-in office tools, majorly targeted to the executive market.
But are they good enough to completely replace a conventional laptop? Maybe, or Maybe not. Skeptical about the same, Laptop Manufacturers are not planning to do exactly opposite of what the phone manufacturers have done. In their efforts to make sure that Laptop sales do not fall, Laptop makers are now integrating mobile phones into their laptops.
These laptop makers probably thought, “Why carry two devices along, when both can be made into one single device?” However, it mustn’t be long before they realized, “Hey, those mobile manufacturers already did that. So what, we will do the same!“
The laptop makers are now planning to tie-up with mobile service providers, to offer subsidized variants of 3G laptops. The cost of the laptop will be initially low, if the subscriber opts for a data plan from the service provider. Of course, you will have to sign a contract for a minimum period. Wait, say what? 3G? Yes, 3G in India is still in the nascent stages.
Hewlett-Packard (more commonly referred to as HP) are planning to have talks with Indian Mobile service providers to offer 3G laptops through a tie-up. These laptops would be like your conventional laptop, with the addition of 3G. The onboard 3G will enable a user to make phone calls via the cellular network. HP already has such laptops in the US, where it has tied-up with AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. In Austrlia and UK, HP subsidizes these laptops through Vodafone.
An important advantage of such 3G enabled laptops would be the fact that the user would not need any secondary device to access the web through his laptop. In today’s scenario, data cards or WiFi networks are the only means of access to the web. Such a technology would mean instant access to the vast information available online. Not just that, 3G also means faster broadband-like speeds. This would also facilitate situations when you instantly need to make a phone call, and you are already working on your laptop.
However, I fail to see this replacing the mobile phone. Mobile phones are handy piece of equipments. I see myself accessing my phone’s web-browser trying to search the nearest mall, than booting up the laptop’s OS and then using Google to get my results.
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Interesting article!:)
Let me think about this from a user’s perspective. While technology is always exciting, at times it ends up becoming a tail that wags the dog!:)
Lets look at the scenario #1 - mobile phone as a laptop:)
I would love to use my mobile phone as a laptop, it def offers me less hassle and more convenience (with every passing day am inching nearer to a bad case of backache, thanks to my laptop:)), but couple of things which are more fundamental and important for a positive experience:
a) cell phones heat up at a mere accessing of internet (I have an N-82, I browse the internet for 2 hours on it, and I feel like applying burnol on my hands!:))I def dont want my phone to ‘boil’ while I use it as a laptop
b) wider screen. Irrespective of the technological issues voiced over the VAIO, what I love about that laptop is the wide screen!. So will my phone allow me that benefit? Something like a projection ..but will it offer me ‘better’ experience, because similar experience wont be a ‘true value add’
c) the keys - all said and done, typing something on the keyboard, is far easier than typing on the mobile (even if they have a qwerty keyboard?) how about the resolution on that, a foldable keyboard (latex / rubber material or something like that?)
Now scenario 2, mobile phone in a laptop:
A mobile phone into the laptop sounds exciting, but then I will have to carry the laptop wherever I go and whatever I do? Imagine sitting on the ‘think-pot’ while talking to someone with the laptop?
Further I think mobile phone is more an ‘accessory’ today then pure benefit, if that be true, dont think how will laptop replace the ‘accessory benefit’ part…:)
Well at first look it might seem a revolutionary idea, but yahoo has already launched voice services with which you can make calls worldwide (but this ofcourse needs internet connection). And as far as 3G network is concerned it seems that the bidders for the network are paying huge price which they will definately recover from its customers (http://utvi.myrecourl.com). So before using the 3G for excessive internet usage, I think its better to keep a check on the costs.
ITS A FANTASTIC IDEA TO CONVERGE A MOBILE PHONE INTO A LAPTOP,MAKING PHONE CALLS TO ANYWHERE FROM LAPTOP WILL BE AWSOME,LET THEM MAKE SURE THESE LAPTOPS ARE BUILT WITH GSM QUADBAND SIM CARD SLOTS,THIS IS CONVERGENCE TECHNOLOGIES,THE ONLY WEAK POINT OF LAPTOP PHONES WILL BE IT’S SIZE BUT NEVERMIND.THIS IS THE FUTURE.
THANK GOD INDIA IS WAKING UP TO 3G, BUT NUN CAN MATCH THE NETWORK OF WI-MAX,OR JAPAN’S WILCOM W-SIM TECHNOLOGIES,YOU’LL BE BLOWN AWAY BY THEIR FEATURES AND SPEED,FUNCTIONALITIES ETC.