A Bridge to the Future

Today an abridged version of the SPMT specification became available to anyone who wants it, albeit under NDA. Most people don’t realize how much progress has been made on the SPMT specification. When we announced the formation of the consortium back in May, everyone just assumed that the development of the specification had just begun. The fact is, the spec has been in development for several years. I guess you could say we were in stealth mode.  Having the abridged SPMT specification available will give everyone a good sense of how far along the specification has evolved.  If you would like to see the entire specification, then you need to become a member of the consortium. That can be done by going to www.SPMT.org and clicking on “Become a Member”. Admittedly a lot of the interesting information has been omitted from the abridged version but it is easy to get an understanding of this new technology and, perhaps, move you to become a member. This is truly exciting technology and promises to foster a whole new generation of mobile devices.

I lived through the first wave of commercially available cell phones that were deployed way back in the olden days, circa 1980’s. I knew then that the world was in for a big change. Even though people were carrying around these big bricks that looked more like a World War II walkie-talkie than a cell phone as we know them today, technology being what it is, I knew they eventually would get smaller. Evolution went slowly  back then, it took almost 10 years before Motorola brought out the revolutionary StarTac; the first clamshell style cell phone. But, I still remember the thrill of picking up one of the first Motorola brick models, standing outside, pressing the on button and hearing a dial tone. It was amazing. I have that same feeling right now about the direction of the next generation of handsets. The functionality and services that will be developed for these new gizmos is and will be just incredible. These are exciting times!