I can see this, but if the world goes GPRS, it will be years until any of those capabilities see the light of day, and the prices will dramatically decrease.
Kent, that depends on which features you're talking about. Most online games for PCs can generally be played well enough off of a 56K modem, although you'd be correct in assuming that a broadband connection would help. Still, the screen's relatively small. For streaming video, it'll definitely make a huge difference in quality, although PacketVideo has geared their software to work from 14.4K on up. Other features, such as Bluetooth, advanced operating systems, GPS, MP3 support, color displays, etc. really aren't dependent on data rates, and these features could drive up the selling prices of handsets by themselves.
It's also important to remember that I was looking three years out in that diatribe of mine. By then, most 3G deployments, both cdma2000 and W-CDMA, should be underway in developed nations.
Eric |
