Hal Rogers can immediately get the e-mail that comes to his office computer virtually anywhere he is, including on the ferry or at home.
His new cellphone even includes a built-in speaker phone so he can talk and type at his keyboard at the same time.
“They work really, really nice,” said Rogers, management information systems manager at Achilles USA, an Everett-based maker of plastic and vinyl materials.
Based on his tests of the Blackberry 7510 phone from Nextel, he outfitted his company’s sales force with the device. Those employees were similarly impressed.
“The initial feedback was, ‘Wow, how did we ever live without this?’” he said.
Now, instead of letting e-mail stack up for a week or more, the sales representatives can handle it while on business trips.
They also can instantly communicate to customers who also use Nextel phones via a walkie-talkie feature. In addition, the phones can browse the Internet and run Java-enabled business programs or games.
These days, only the “old-fashioned” cellphones are limited mainly to making calls. Instead, a fast-growing number of “smart phones” are combining Internet browsing and e-mail functions, personal digital assistants and other digital-age devices into one package.
“Users want to do multiple things with a wireless device,” said Joe Valencia, senior product manager for T-Mobile’s U.S. headquarters in Bellevue. “They don’t necessarily want to carry a separate cellphone, a camera and a PDA.”
Jeff Brennan, Northwest vice president at Nextel Communications in Redmond, said that’s the thinking behind the Blackberry device that Rogers uses.
“It is like being able to take your office with you,” Brennan said via e-mail from his Blackberry 7510. “Imagine how much more productive you can be while sitting at the airport, riding the Sounder to work or waiting in the doctor’s office.”
The HP iPAQ h6315 Pocket PC, developed by Hewlett-Packard and T-Mobile and introduced in July, looks even less like a phone than the Blackberry. It even has an attachable mini-keyboard.
The iPAQ h6315, T-Mobile and Motorola claim, is the first model that can use both the cellphone network and Wi-Fi for connecting to the Internet. It also has Bluetooth for linking to wireless headphones and other devices.
Being able to use Wi-Fi for Internet browsing and e-mail is faster than trying to do those online tasks on the slower cellphone networks. It also means a user can talk on the phone and browse the Internet at the same time with the one device, Valencia said.
The iPAQ doesn’t allow voice communications over Wi-Fi networks, but that’s coming.
The CN620 Wi-Fi cellphone, developed by Motorola and Texas Instruments, should hit the market early in 2005. Users could then talk over traditional cellphone networks or, when near a Wi-Fi access point, use Voice Over Internet Protocol to talk.
So far, Motorola reportedly hasn’t struck a deal with one of the major wireless carriers, and there are questions about how to bill customers as they switch from one network to another for their voice calls.
Other phone makers are working on similar Wi-Fi phones as well.
While the iPAQ and Nextel’s Blackberry both resemble PDAs more than phones, even those that look more like conventional cellpones are packing in software and other applications.
AT&T Wireless, based in Redmond, also is marketing the Motorola MPx200, which runs Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software, Windows Media Player and MSN Messenger.
While the i830 phone from Motorola and Nextel looks more like a tiny conventional phone, even it offers a e-mail, Web access and other data features. It also can give you directions with its GPS location feature.
What else will cellphones do? A number of consumer-oriented phones already incorporate cameras, but music may be the next direction.
Nokia’s 3300 already includes an MP3 player that can store up to two hours of downloadable music files. But Motorola is working with Apple Computer’s iTunes to develop a phone that will download full-length songs from computers.
John Jackson, wireless technology analyst at The Yankee Group in Boston, said cellphones are splitting into two groups: the “do-everything” machines like the iPAQ and Nextel’s Blackberry, and phones that also are dedicated to gaming, MP3 music or instant messaging.
“What you’re seeing is the evolution of the cellphone into an appliance that has to serve multiple, disparate user needs,” Jackson said. “That user may be an executive or a 14-year-old girl.”
The average consumer who just wants a cellphone for chatting on the move or as a way to call in an emergency probably doesn’t want or need an elaborate smart phone. They’re not cheap. The iPAQ 6315 retails at $600 or so and the Motorola MPx200 sells for more than $400. There are discounts when sold with wireless service contracts.
For the business person on the go, however, the phones are ideal. That’s the target market for the iPAQ, according to T-Mobile.
“For this particular device, we see a lot of benefit there for the corporate consumer, as well as the home office and small business user,” Valencia said.
Brennan at Nextel agreed, adding that Nextel is looking at improving the range of features its phones offer business people.
“Nextel will continue to launch feature-rich devices that take advantage of our cellular, data and walkie-talkie capabilities,” he said.
For the rest of us, the rapid pace of cellphone development is good news. Jackson said smart phone features are beginning to show up on more basic models as the technology gets less expensive. Now, almost any phone includes a full-color screen, sophisticated ring tones and expandable connectivity options.
Valencia said that migration of features should continue.
“In any kind of technology industry, even the consumer electronics industry, you see the features trickle down from the high-end devices down to the mass market,” Valencia said. “I think that cycle is becoming faster and faster.”
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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