The world is changing right before our very eyes. It seems like only yesterday that everyone used rotary-style landlines and the idea of using a cellular handset was some far-off notion. Today though, virtually everyone has a cellular handset and the idea of using a landline is quickly going “out of fashion.” But that's not the extent of the changes ahead. The handset itself is changing. No longer is a handset something that just sends and receives calls. It also sends and receives text messages, takes fairly high-quality pictures, captures video, offers GPS-type functionality, and accesses the Internet — and that's just for starters. In other words, it is evolving from just a communication tool into more of an integrated communication device, media terminal, credit card and yes, even a remote control.

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In Japan, for example, the phone is already a ubiquitous tool, traveling everywhere with the user. It is used for most personal electronic needs. Service providers have even created services that enable phones to be used to pay, check in, enter, and travel, just by waving the phone in front of sensors. In fact, handsets with contactless chips are already used to pay for items in millions of different shops.

Tomorrow, if industry analysts and technologists are to be believed, the cellular handset may be an entirely different creature altogether. It may be what many are referring to as a converged mobile device — a device in which traditionally disparate functionality (e.g., mobile phone, television, PC and PDA) is converging on the mobile platform. Nowhere is the progress of the converged mobile device more apparent than with the cellular handset.

According to analysts with the IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker service, the converged mobile device market grew an estimated 42% in 2006 for a total of more than 80 million units. In the fourth quarter alone, vendors shipped a total of 23.5 million devices; 33% more than the same quarter a year ago. Much of that growth was driven by substantially decreased price points, a greater selection of devices for consumers to choose from, and increased integration of applications and features.

As IDC explains, competitive pressures have driven price points below $200. This has made converged mobile devices like the cellular handset more affordable to a broader base of users. More than ever before, vendors are now focused on providing greater capabilities that differentiate their products while keeping costs in check. These capabilities will be built on the backs of a range of existing and emerging radio protocols like Bluetooth, Certified Wireless USB, WiMAX, and ZigBee, as well as technologies like near field communications (NFC) and software defined radios (SDRs). Of course, that plan may not be as straightforward as it sounds. How will these different radios and technologies be integrated into a converged mobile device like the handset? How will they ultimately work together, without interference, to enable the capabilities that vendors will need to provide to entice the end user?

This special issue of Emerging Wireless Technology takes a closer look at the evolution of the cellular handset into a converged mobile device and examines some of the radio protocols that will find a home in such devices. For today's engineers working in this dynamically changing marketplace, this issue will provide crucial details regarding this market and the technologies that will define it going forward.