Cell phone ubiquity is coming: Motorola

Mobile phone technology has only reached the tip of the iceberg, said Edward Zander, chief executive officer of Motorola Inc., a major handset producer. “Cell phones have advanced so much that calling someone is probably the least thing we do now with them,” Mr. Zander told a luncheon sponsored by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday. Referring to mobile phones as “devices formerly known as cell phones,” he emphasized that they are the new major “disruptive” medium of our times ― following newspapers, television and the Internet. “I’m very bullish about the technology that we will see in the future. Everything we talked about in the past is coming true,” he said. Holding up a handset larger than a brick, he compared it with Motorola’s new slim model. “This is the development we’ve made in 20 years. Soon cell phones will replace wallets, keys, television remote controls...everything.” Mr. Zander also noted the convergence of technology with non-related industries. “Top companies in the United States don’t develop technology but they embrace it. Federal Express, Wal-Mart, and G.E. are some examples,” he said. He said that digitization, broadband, and the increasing “intelligence” of products will be the main new forces for the next few years. “Communication has moved from people to people to people to things. Next, we’ll be having networking between things and things. It’s a new trillion dollar market.” Mr. Zander added that Korea is the place to experiment. “In the United States, this would be a easy talk about where technology is headed, but to speak of it here is a bit embarrassing because most of the new concepts are already in Korea.” He said, “In the next decade, we’re going to go through a lot of experiments because we’re not sure how technology will apply socially. Of course, there are a lot of ethical issues of ‘can versus should,’ but I don’t really want to get into that.” by Wohn Dong-hee