Ironically, RIM's success also may portend some future challenges for
the company as smartphones begin to encroach on its market turf. To its
credit, RIM seems to understand the smartphone threat and has begun to
license its messaging technologies to other handheld device vendors,
including PalmSource and Samsung. While RIM has enjoyed some success by
integrating cellular telephony features into its platform, it's not easy
to compete with phone manufacturers that have made their livelihood by
delivering on the needs of the mass cell phone market.
Debate will continue for many years about whether it is best to have
multiple mobile devices, each optimized for a specific task, or a single
mobile device that performs all tasks well enough. However, when you
consider the broad range of consumer and business applications, ranging
from entertainment to messaging to mission-critical enterprise
applications, it's tough not to conclude that some level of device
consolidation makes sense. Based on that assumption, we see a bright
future for the smartphone and more limited success for purpose-built
devices, but not much of a future for the classic PDA.
-- Dave Molta, [email protected]
Pending 6GHz spectrum availability, faster speeds, and private wireless access use drive FWA forward.
The new HPE Aruba 730 series Wi-Fi 7 access points tout high performance, enhanced security, location tracking capabilities, and more.
Verizon is demoing crowd analytics technology that uses 5G along with AI and mobile edge computing to give stadium operators insights into the flow of fans throughout a venue.
