3G and 4G mobile phone technology
A new report by Strategy Analytics predicts that 3G and 4G mobile technology is set to find its way into 20 different mobile device types that are anything but mobile phones. From laptops to cameras, GPS devices to portable game consoles, every type of mobile device is set to become 3G-enabled as the technology and its cost shrink inexorably.

By 2014, the company predicts over 100 million of these always connected devices will have been bought, leading to a golden age of mobile technology that’s set to transform every type of gadget you currently own.

We’re already seeing this trend begin, with smartphones such as the iPhone and Android bringing the mobile Web to the masses, and netbooks enabling people to browse the Web as an alternative to watching the TV. 3G and smartphone technology is merging with increasingly powerful cloud computing, enabling us to do far more on ever smaller devices than we ever thought possible.

As this trend increases, a gadget that can’t communicate with the mobile Web will seem as odd as a phone that doesn’t come with a camera. These devices won’t just be about communicating with the Web, though. They’ll interact with it and with each other in ways we can’t even imagine.

Already, Android phones have contact managers in them that pull profile info, such as pictures of your friends, from Facebook. GPS phones are nothing new, but soon GPS Sat Navs with 3G and 4G technology built-in will be on the market, and they too will integrate tightly with Web apps such as Flickr, Twitter and YouTube. Rather than just typing in a postcode and giving it the name of your fiend, it’ll automatically pull in their picture and contact details, and will let you phone them with a simple click if you’re running late.

Cameras with GPS units in them won’t just geo-tag your photos – they’ll let you upload them to sites such as Microsoft’s Photosynth, effectively stitching together the world in a 3D user-generated equivalent of Google’s StreetMaps.

A few years ago, the talk was of lightbulbs with IP addresses – in other words, every device will be connected to the Internet, from the smartest computer to the humblest lightbulb. With 3G technology reducing in size and in price, this looks set to become reality. With your entire home connected to the mobile network, your phone will become the ultimate remote control, letting you control every device in your home, from your washing machine, oven, cat feeder, even your lightbulbs, no matter where you are in the world.

What I think Strategy Analytics miss is that once a critical mass of gadgets come enabled with 3G technology, then everything and anything electrical will also buy into this new connected vision. It won’t just be 100 million devices that will include it – it will literally be every type of electrical device. TV with Twitter, irons with iTunes, and all manner of gadget-based media mashups will be enabled in fantastically innovative new ways.

3G may have taken many more years to become the changing force of society that it was predicted, but it’s time has truly come. The future starts now. And if you want a piece of the future, then shares in the mobile operators that will carry, and ultimately charge for, all this data, are not a bad place to start!

[Source: EETimes]