Mobility Matters

This morning, after ample caffeination (kindly provided by the folks at IDF), I had the opportunity to listen to the keynote given by Dadi Perlmutter, who spoke about the evolving arena of mobile computing and how this vision of the total mobile experience deserves to earn the moniker of “cool” from everyone from the middle-aged tech geek to the rebellious teenage daughter.

Dadi’s cast of characters during this keynote was colorful, with cameos from both Mooly Eden, VP and GM of the mobile platforms group, and John Saw of Clearwire, who gave his address through a live streaming feed. John’s 4G (WiMax) feed was impressive. The video did not resemble the dubbed kung-fu movies of the late 70s, as the slower 3G feed did, but rather was a proper stream that was in sync and clear enough for us to see the patterns of his Hawaiian shirt, set against an intriguing woodland compound that I assume was the Clearwire headquarters in Portland, Oregon.

To be candid, my personal focus is largely on mobile phones and handhelds and the consumer and brand world. Many of us from that world have walked past the decked-out Intel booths at events like CTIA and GSMA without taking much notice. What we’re learning quickly, especially here at IDF, is that we within the mobile arena need to be paying much more attention to Intel, and Dadi gave us three reasons why:

1. Faster (mobile) processing. I was impressed by the Turbo Boost Technology that shuts down half the active cores with each level , then increases the speed for the rest of the cores. This should result in a faster response to the foremost active program. Given that video viewing on mobile is rapidly rising–NBC has seen almost 1.3mm full streams of its network episodes–video playback performance would benefit from this.

2. Faster wireless broadband. WiMax (4G) is five to ten times faster than 3G, and is rolling out in several cities with more on the way. No longer will we be hesitant to browse on our phones for information or worry that a download will take longer than the micro-moment we have.

3. Lower power usage, which equates to longer battery life–the main gripe of many smartphone users. With a move to smaller processers with higher densities (45nm to 32nm to 22nm by 2013), we’ll benefit from their lessened electricity use and will no longer fear that playing our audio player now will result in dropping a call or missing a photo op later.

These advances allow developers to have confidence that the high-end assets they create, such as HD video, will have a home on the third screen. And we, as consumers and end users, can live in a world where we trust the connectivity in our hands to the point where mobile will be seen not just as cool, but as the necessary remote control for our lives.