Mobile is the next computer

BANGALORE

JANUARY 10, 2007

"The mobile phone today is where the PC was in 1995. Compared to PC
penetration, the number of cellular connections that are getting added every
year is increasing," said Rajiv C Mody, Chairman and CEO, Sasken
Communication Technologies, while speaking at the second international
conference on COMmunication System softWAre and MiddlewaRE (COMSWARE 2007).

Stressing the enormous potential and growth of the cell phone industry he
said that the growth of PCs is slowing down probably because of the high price
points, but cell phones are still growing. It is expected to cross three billion
next year.

He added that while the mobile boom cannot be ignored, on the flip side,
there are still some issues that need sorting out. These include lack of
dominant players who can drive standards and hence inter-operability problems
and testing issues. He felt that the lack of standards would probably drive the
trend towards Software as a service (SaaS). Some of the disruptive technologies
that are driving mobile technology are peer-to-peer middleware, next generation
networks and SaaS.

Dr Hamid Ahmadi, chief architect, Motorola said that the network is becoming
flat with convergence breaking down traditional industry barriers. "There
is now a common IP platform to deliver various services."

He touched upon the changing competitive landscape in mobile telephony where
besides cellular operations, cable operators, wireline and wireless broadband
players and new entrants like Yahoo and Google are also making their presence
felt.

He predicts that the internal environment of a home would be the next IT
frontier. "There will be high bandwidth networks that support mobility of
content and services."

Speaking on behalf of Nasscom, Mody said that the industry body is working on
reducing roadblocks in India such as strengthening the urban infrastructure and
enhancing the talent pool. "We are also driving the philosophy of
operational excellence to ensure that India delivers on benchmarks in
performance. The next phase of growth comes from innovation," he added.