Ericsson introduced two thinner, smaller, faster broadband modules, one for tablets and computers and another for M2M apps, gaming devices and media players. Thin will be in.
Ericsson has introduced two new mobile broadband modules
that, among other feats, are likely to escalate the current battle between
tablet makers, all working to shave millimeters off the
size of their iPad competitors.
The modules, unmemorably named the H5321gw and C5321gw, are
thinner, 40 percent smaller and three times faster than the company's previous
modules, and work on both WCDMA/HSPA+ and GSM/EDGE networks. The former,
designed for tablets and computers, will be available to electronics customers
in October, and the latter, created for cameras, handheld gaming devices, media
players, navigation devices and machine-to-machine functionalities, will be
available in September and so make it into consumer devices likely in time for
the holidays.
With the high-speed modules, tablets could stream HD video,
said Ericsson, a cloud-based MP3 player could access a user's music library
from anywhere, and a digital camera could instantly upload to the cloud,
eliminating the need for a big memory card.
"Ericsson's mission is to have 50 billion connected
devices by 2020," Mats Norin, vice president of mobile
broadband modules
for Ericsson, told eWEEK.
Facebook and other types of social networking are driving
smartphone use, and young users are comfortable with an always-on society.
"People really want to have more connectivity in their devices," said
Norin, and Ericsson, whose equipment is currently facilitating approximately
half of the world's online traffic, will be happy to provide it.
Ericsson has been working with AT&T, which has a 3G
Access program "designed to offer next-generation consumer electronics and
machine-to-machine device manufacturers high-performance 3G modules at a lower
cost," Ericsson said in a March 22 statement. According to Technology
Business Research analyst Ken Hyers,
AT&T has been expanding into the M2M space "very aggressively."
By 2015, TBR is projecting that
the number of global M2M connections will exceed the number of wireless voice
connections - offering motivation for AT&T and other carriers to get behind
the technology. Much of that growth, Hyers said,
will come from enterprises automating their services with M2M-based
applications. For example, everything from farming equipment to parking meters
and furnaces can now proactively communicate their status or the need for a
repair.
More straightforwardly, consumers will also get to enjoy the
benefits of the modules. Not only will they enable thinner products in hand,
but embedded modules perform better - offering higher-quality service and
less of a battery drain - than, say, a 3G dongle.
"With Ericsson's new module, equipment makers, including
those producing tablets, will have another critical tool necessary to create
streamlined designs for mobile broadband connectivity at an affordable
cost," Glenn Lurie, AT&T Mobility's president of emerging devices,
resale and partnerships, said in the statement.
The Apple iPad 2, Norin noted on a call, is 8.8mm thick.
"That means the rest of the world is targeting 8.8mm," he said. "We realized we need to have modules
fulfilling this requirement."
At the CTIA Wireless 2011 event, underway in Orlando, Fla.,
as Ericsson made its announcement, manufacturers were busy proving there's no
such thing as too thin, and those sub-9 millimeters were indeed a point of
focus.
Samsung, during a March 22 event it had dropped hints about,
out-skinnied
even Apple with the introduction of two new Galaxy Tab devices, the Galaxy
Tab 10.1 and 8.9. At 1.31 pounds, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is lighter than the
1.33-pound iPad 2, and the Galaxy Tab 8.9, measuring a super-slim 8.6 mm,
manages to outdo the 8.8mm-thin iPad 2.
"We've created a new class of products that will lead the tablet
market," Samsung President JK Shin said in a statement.
Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.
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