Time to Rename the Cell Phone?

In Time to Rename the Cell Phone?, one of Business Week's articles from their Special Tech Report on Mobile, we learn that the cellular system got its name because it divided cities into small cell sites. The frequencies overlapped across a city, handing off contact from one tower to another as you walk or drive so that millions of people can use cell phones simultaneously without losing a call..

''Problem is, they were designed mainly to accommodate voice calls. And now technology leaders feel the name is antiquated.

New multipurpose handsets soon will easily switch between cellular networks, Wi-Fi, and WiMax, a longer-range broadband network. ''I don't think we have a good name,'' says Intel (INTC) Executive Vice-President Sean Maloney. ''If it's just doing voice, a cell phone is a great name.''

Already Nokia and Samsung have changed the names of their new do-all gadgets: Nokia refers to them ''multimedia computers'' and Samsung Electronics calls this new category of devices the ''mobile informational terminal''.
11/27/2006 7:15:23 PM
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