The Change Mariner

Mobile Phones & Touch Screen Interfaces

SMH.com:

With the Internet now entrenched in business, a new wave of opportunity is emerging to extend beyond the network and into the physical environment.

Mobile phone technology has become one of the key ways for extending the reach of the network.

Recent figures from research firm Venture Development, predict that by 2007, more than 600 million Java-enabled mobile phones and hand-held devices will ship in a year - more than three times the number of PCs. Meanwhile, wireless standards and solutions, such as 802.11, Bluetooth, WI-FI and RFID (radio frequency identification) are also serving to liberate devices in the physical environment from the constraints of hard-wired connectivity.

Smarter and cheaper devices are being released to take advantage of these technologies. The cost of technology is decreasing while intelligence increases and this is pushing more affordable, smarter devices into consumers' hands, all of which can be wirelessly connected to the still rapidly expanding global internet.

Angus MacDonald, chief technology officer of Sun Microsystems Australia, explains that smart technology is advancing rapidly. "We are moving towards the point where soon we will be able to address your light bulb," he says.

"If you live in an apartment block for instance, and one of your light bulbs blows, we'll be able to know the instant it happens and exactly which bulb."

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