The Device – Smartphone with 5Mp + camera, music/video player, GPS receiver, FM receiver, high speed modem etc built in. In emerging markets this will become the primary computer. Dock it and you get a big screen, keyboard, mouse etc.

The network – high speed > 5 Mpbs, packet switched networks.

The applications – voice, data, audio streams, video streams, global identity and roaming, location based services (weather, directions, traffic, friends locations on maps etc), digital wallet (credit cards, identification documents) etc.

The revenue model -

For the device – direct sales and sales through service providers.

For service providers – subscription based and ad based. Basic services could be ad funded, high end services such TV anywhere (some hybrid version of TiVo content mixed with personalized ads delivered anywhere – phone, car, home etc), live traffic routing etc could be subscription based. Targetted location based advertiesing would play an important role in revenue, so would location based applications…

( less than INR 2400), they will offer phone, home phone, internet connection and perhaps IPTV too in the future. Simiarly clearwire can eat into cingular’s territory by offering voice over their UMTS networks.

5. If the zune cell phone ever happens, it will eventually have support for calling your messenger friends, just like skype today.

5. Then there is the whole WiMax story in the picture too.

I think in the long run, 3G networks will become so pervasive and low cost that they will restrict WiFi networks to what they are today, a means of sharing files, data, voice, internet connection etc within a small local home and office network.

In the long run the current line between VoIP, data and voice will blur, all cellular networks are packet switched anyways, if you have pervasive 3G networks that have high speed data capabilities, adding voice and global identity on top of them is a piece of cake…

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1. I was recently in mountain view and had the chance of trying out the google wifi network – free service for anyone who wants wifi – well the service sucked, I couldn’t get a decent signal within a mile of the city center.

2. WiFi was not designed for the purpose we are trying to put it to. It has a very short range, requires too many boosters and repeaters to make things work, so there are infrastructure costs associated with it, which everyone seems to be overlooking. Some one will have to set up large scale routers, repeaters etc throughout the city to ensure the right signal strength and QOS, piggybacking onto open WiFi connections doesn’t work well – more and more people are securing their connections.

3. 3G on the other hand is pretty cool – you get speeds upto 1Mbps easily today here in greater seattle area on the cingular network, I am using it and it works just great. The phone doubles up as a modem for the laptop as well, so you get high speed internet everywhere, all that is needed is to connect the laptop and phone through USB and volia it is all good. And all this is on UMTS I think, with HSDPA, speeds are expected to improve perhaps.

4. Clearwire – the newest broadband internet provider in US has gone UMTS route instead of WiFi. They are providing wireless broadband internet over UMTS network and it works great.

5. Even though there is a service cost associated with using the UMTS and HSDPA networks today, this cost is going down. I think in the future a household will end up with one phone/tv/cellphone/data provider that will meet all their needs for one low price. For e.g. with my cingular UMTS phone, I really don’t neeed comcast, my phone can provide me with my primary internet connection. I am sure cingular will start bundling UMTS routers with their cellphones soon and for the price of $50(