Mobile phones: Add color to your personality

Thanks to innovating and improved technologies that has transformed mobile phones into computers. Now, mobiles are serving purpose of almost everything that we generally do on computers and laptops. Even advertisers believe they have struck upon the formula for getting their messages across without irking consumers.

Several blue-chip brands like Nokia Corp. and McDonald's Corp. have been experimenting with interactive ads on cell phones, taking advantage of the device's ability to know where you are. Customers have the option of finding the nearest retail or restaurant outlet with the press of a key.

Apart from that, the iPhone-- multimedia and Internet-enabled quad-band GSM EDGE-supported mobile phone designed and sold by Apple-- has also received a huge amount of publicity. The good news is the iPhone has high awareness. 77% of people in the survey had heard of it and 41% of that group had a good impression of the phone. The bad news is that few people want to buy it. Just 6% of people said they were planning on buying the iPhone. The high price ($500-$600) is a strong disincentive. Even with typical phone plan commitment discount, the phone will still cost $300-400 plus expensive Internet access and messaging fees. Still, 6% is an outstanding first year sales figure that could translate into millions of first year buyers.

The another inevitable fact that make mobile phone even more exciting is that in the near future our cell phoneswill function as credit cards; in fact, in some countries, they already do. Your credit card number is stored on your cell phone and through wireless magic; you can pay for something just by waving your cell phone at a special reader. It's already being tested in some countries, and it's only a matter of time before most of us have the option to add this latest functionality to our mobile phones.

Google is also working hard on mobile services. Talk of a Google-branded search service-packing phone has been circulating for months. The Wall Street Journals claims that Google has been waving prototype phones around in front of potential partners have lead to an influx of ‘shopped concepts. Moreover, as price competition forces margins down, the mobile networks are moving to offer additional services to increase revenue and customer commitment. Internet access, information by SMS and WAP and services such as Orange's Wildfire are applications for existing technology, but provide new services. We have HSCSD and GPRS (giving faster data speeds), though priced rather too high for widespread use.

Thus, after the computers and television, the increasing development in mobile phone handset promises to be a “third monitor” to display your stuff.