The cell phone has become ubiquitous during the past decade.  The tipping point occurred when it passed the land line as the most common path for communication.  The cell phone, however, has not ceased to change.  In fact it is no longer accurate to call it either a cell or a phone – it is much more.  It is more as other means besides CDMA have come to the forefront for delivery of the content.  It is also more than just a phone.  The bells and whistles have included screens (small), music, email, and more embedded into the “communication device.”  In fact you can now look on the cell phone as the Swiss knife of technology – just whip it out and it should have something to meet whatever need you have. And as amazing as the changes may seem, even more are on the way.   

The biggest hype right now on the communications market is the coming of Apple’s iPhone, set to retail for $499.  Wall Street tech journalist Walter Mossberg recently noted that Nokia’s N95 and BlackBerry’s Curve 8300 are also fancy devices.  Right now the iPhone is set to run on AT&T’s EDGE network, which is the slower G 2.5, but phones are on the way that run on the G3 and coming G4 networks at much higher speeds.  And there are also mobile phones on the way with chips inside that allow them to switch back and forth between cells and Wi-Fi and/or WiMax.   In the United States , T-Mobile’s phones will soon be pushing the edge of the envelope in multi-connection capability.

Today’s mobile communication device has about everything you can imagine – with one crucial drawback – the screen.  Yes, mobile phones have screens.  However, the screens are tiny.  A C level executive from Asia noted that it is the screen that is holding back the full potential of the mobile phone.  With such a tiny viewing area, the ever important visual aspect is minimized.  Or at least has been.  However, change is in the air.

 Microvision (symbol MVIS, the company mentioned in a recent article on the concept of being bought by Hewlett Packard) has recently unveiled its MEMS approach to screen projection (for a peek, check out www.microvision.com).   Microvision’s quantum leap in technology will not only be disruptive in the printer world, it is set to turn the mobile phone world on its head as well as it is embedded into the mobile phone.  The reason is that the MEMS technology that Microvision is putting together projects a full-size screen from a tiny mint-sized laser element.  That’s right – a full sized screen.  Imagine being able to do that Power Point presentation from your cell phone – without having to lug a computer around.  Or being able to actually see the Internet on your mobile phone without squinting your eyes.  That’s because Microvision’s ultra-miniature projection displays a maximum size screen.  This is the application killer for the mobile phone that will turn it into the ultimate communication device.  If you want to watch how it develops (and how it is also being put into other venues such as cars, printers, and gamer glasses), check out the very interesting blog site of one of Microvision’s R&D team:  http://microvision.blogspot.com/

The author, of course, owns stock in some of the companies mentioned in this article.

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