A group of 16 leading telecommunications and information technology companies, under the auspices of the GSM Association, is promoting mobile broadband in a marketing initiative worth more than $1 billion over the next year.
The companies--which include Vodafone, Microsoft, and Asustek--aim to make it simpler for consumers to identify laptops that have built-in access to the Internet via high-speed, next-generation HSPA and LTE networks.
According to research commissioned by the GSMA and Microsoft, and carried out by Pyramid Research, there is demand for $50 billion worth of such notebooks this year.
"We definitely expect to see several hundred thousand in the shops by Christmastime," Mike O’Hara, the GSMA’s chief marketing officer, told Reuters by telephone.
The group said the move also could pave the way to connect to the Internet from MP3 music players, refrigerators, and cars in the future.
The partners will label laptop computers that meet their standards for mobile broadband access with a new service mark that identifies laptops ready for mobile broadband connections "out of the box."
Many in the telecommunications and computer industries believe that most people in the world will have their first, and perhaps only, experience of the Internet via a mobile device. Read more...
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