Mobile Phones from the year 3000

The future of the mobile phone is assured: at the end of 2007 there were far in excess of 3 billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide, with that figure predicted to double in the coming years. Over the past decade or so, what constitutes a mobile phone has grown incalculably, with cameras, diaries, music players, word processors, games consoles and libraries all making an appearance on the ubiquitous piece of kit -
so much so that the mobile phone has successfully swamped other, previously discrete markets. The most obvious being the digital camera market, where currently phones provide better resolution photographs than top spec digital cameras did less than five years ago.

We all know that digital technology moves at a terrific pace, but nowhere is that speed and constant change felt more acutely than in the mobile phone world. In June 2007 Apple's Iphone was launched, and if it didn't completely revolutionise the industry, that was only because it's outside the price range of most consumers. What it does do is underscore the potential for mobile phones, utterly transcending the sobriquet; the Iphone might more pertinently be called a personal computer - but of course it resists that category by being pocket-sized and designed to perfection.

Necessarily, other manufacturers have had to sit up and take note: a mobile phone really isn't worth its salt today without boasting a ludicrous host of applications, facilities and gimmicks. Nevertheless, the core of the mobile phone, the telephone itself, remains at the root of the product - followed swiftly by the ever popular SMS texting service - meaning that the network providers themselves are a vital part of the process.

Providers like Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and O2 are amongst Europe's largest network providers, with each boasting of unique deals with handset manufacturers (Vodafone for instance have added the much hyped new HTC Magic to their roster of exclusive mobile phones this spring) and extremely competitive tariffs. With the ever expanding definition of what a mobile phone can and should do, these network providers are fighting to future-proof themselves for the next vital stage of mobile communication. And in terms of that bright, touch-screened future, one thing is for sure: the mobile phone will make obsolete many other technological markets in its evermore evident pursuit of complete communication domination.