3G Mobile PDAs are looking great, but wait for 3.5G.

Mark Gilmour has a piece on a newly announced 3G PDA called the QTEK 9000. Powered by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5.0 edition, the device is one of the latest in 3G PDAs with QWERTY keyboards to hit the market.

 

Although we are starting to see some major improvements to the design and usability of these devices, I really think that if you are interested in looking to purchase this you should wait for HSDPA versions that will start to appear between now and Christmas this year.

 

3G’s "killer application" or specifically, it’s killer service has always been speed. With speed comes enablement of data hungry services and applications for both consumers and businesses. Whilst the current 3G technologies are focused on downstream speed over upstream, the driving usage of the Internet is an interactive one, whereby people are becoming active in "let us play/communicate/interact" versus just "entertain me".

 

The Mobile Broadband war will be won on three fronts, convergence, mobility & coverage. Wireless Broadband services that meet these demands from users will prosper.

 

3.5G technologies such as HSDPA & HSUPA will drive adoption of mobile usage as long as there is strong competition to keep data costs to a minimum.

 

So with so many 3.5G networks coming online this year in Australia, Europe and the US it may just be worth waiting a few more months before succumbing to to your mobile device fetishes.

 

Technorati Tags – 3g – 3.5g – convergence – mobile broadband – pda – hsdpa – hsupa