News

First Personal Mobile Gateway due to be unveiled at 3GSM

A smart-phone which is a lot more than a phone is due to appear at the 3GSM congress this month; its manufacturer is being kept secret for the time being. What will make it special is that it doesn't need to be able to display full page Web pages or email on its screen; it can delegate that.

It looks very much like a mobile phone - and it is that, But the design isn't actually meant to be a phone at all; it's a sort of portable wireless hub. It's a personal mobile gateway - a concept from software startup firm, IXI Mobile.

The ideal PMG would be almost anonymous - it would be an unremarkable part of your clothing, or it could be worn as a belt or a holster. The phone format is a perfectly valid one; but the reason the first PMG is being sold as a phone, is that the world is full of shops which sell phones.

Together with the phone launch by an unnamed partner - not one of the big three phone companies is all I know for sure - there will be some wireless accessories to go with the PMG.

The idea is that your PDA will talk directly to it, rather than having to include its own GSM radio; and that other small display devices will be able to receive data in a form that's easier to read than the screen of a phone is. Some such devices, again being kept secret for now, will be on show in Cannes, says IXI.