There has been a recent surge of adds and products for cellular phones
with web access, email access, etc.
Bell unveils plans for wireless web access:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-1431602.html?tag=st.ne.1002.thed.1004-200-1431602
(3Com Nokia) Palm Phones in the Works
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,31888,00.html
(Motorola) Web w/o wires:
http://www.mot.com/GSS/CSG/direct_promotions/webwithoutwires/
I can't help but wonder if wearables are just "too geeky" too soon, and
the mass market isn't going to adopt them, whereas cellular phones that
you can stash in your pocket, or purse and provide wireless connectivity
are "socially acceptable" and spreading rapidly. I haven't read any
recent stats on cell phone usage.. well let me dig some up.
(http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,32274,00.html)
> No escape: About a third of all Americans now have cell
> phones and there are new users signing up at the rate of
> every two seconds -- a year-on-year growth rate of 25
> percent -- according to CTIA, the wireless industry's trade
> organization.
I couldn't find any state of personal wearable use.. but I imagine it's
less then 10,000 users in the US.. or 0.0001%.
Let's be honest.. most wearables are built with desktop technology
scaled down to at minimum pc/104 scale.. but with such vast power
requirements for hard drives, fast processors, and displays that half
your weight is batteries. A cellular phone weighs an order of magnitude
less and doesn't need as much power. Of course this is mostly because
it doesn't have a high powered processor capable of driving a desktop
OS, or have enough memory to store anything more then a few addresses
and phone numbers.
But my question is, are cellphones going to transform into wearable
computers, or are wearable computers going to become smaller and
widespread? Because it seems like cell phones have already won.
-Paul
--
R. Paul McCarty / 
/ x52059
317 Lattimore Hall, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627
Life is nothing if you're not obsessed. -Pecker
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