Devices like laptops, smartphones, and tablets, are pretty useless when they can’t connect to the internet and according to the analysts at Berg Insight that’s why 22 million devices from the consumer electronics (CE) sector shipped with cellular connectivity built-in during 2010. That’s double the number from 2009. They go on to predict that by the time 2015 rolls around there are going to be 271 million CE devices with a cellular radio inside being sold to consumers. That’s one 3G enabled iPad for every person in the country of Indonesia. “The sheer availability of affordable devices with embedded connectivity has exploded during the last year with substantial price reductions on connected personal navigation devices and popular e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook,” said Johan Svanberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. He went on to say that “there is a lot of work to be done when it comes to wireless data subscriptions and a great deal of business innovation is needed in order to make embedded cellular connectivity a common feature in consumer devices”.
When you think about it, it’s all about the business deals. If operators, today, are trying to nickel and dime you for every website you visit, throttle you if you’re watching streaming video, and even install proxy servers that compress pages so their precious network doesn’t get damaged, all the while managing to screw up how much they charge your credit card every month, how exactly are they supposed to help the embedded connectivity scene take off? Mom and Dad don’t want to deal with connecting devices to a WiFi network, and they sure as hell don’t want to watch how many megabytes they’ve used in a single month, so something is going to have to give for this product category to take off.
Devices with embedded connectivity that we’re looking forward to this year: the PSP2.