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by Daniel Shen, DigiTimes
The Personal Mobile Gateway (PMG), which acts as a bridge between mobile phones, PDAs, MP3 players, digital cameras and other devices, will support a revolution in next-generation mobile phones and personal communicators, according to executives from a leading Taiwanese telecommunications engineering company.
"The telecommunications interface will be separated from the mobile phone platform and become a Personal Mobile Gateway," says Alex Hsieh, sales vice president of Howin Technologies Corp., an engineering company that originated from Taiwan Telecom Group.  "Peripheral devices, such as phones and digital cameras, can communicate with the PMG via Bluetooth or WiFi; they can also communicate with other devices through the PMG. This concept will reduce costs associated with producing traditional mobile phones. As a result, mobile operators will benefit."
"Since the SIM [Subscriber Identity Module] card is inside the PMG, mobile operators can sell the PMG together with mobile phone numbers," says John Chung, sales manager of Howin Sales division-1. "Currently, mobile phones use all-in-one designs, but if the telecommunications portion can be designed and manufactured separately, then mobile phones can be sold at a lower price, and new sleek designs can be marketed."
PMG technology solves many problems faced by mobile operators, Chung says, such as enabling consumer device suppliers to develop new products more easily. He expects to see large volumes of PMG-connected digital cameras, audio and video devices sold by retailers in conjunction with mobile operators. Moreover, because sleek devices connected to the PMG communicate using Bluetooth or WiFi, they do not include a GSM/GPRS modem, resulting in lower radiation levels and power savings. Chung expects Bluetooth will be more popular than WiFi because required components cost less than $10 (U.S.) and could be used in every personal-area network.
The U.S. company IXI Mobile presented the PMG concept at the 3GSM World Congress in February 2002. Since then, Taiwan Cellular Corp., Taiwan's leading private telecommunications operator, has been aggressively evaluating applications for the technology. Chung expects to see mass production of PMGs this year and believes Taiwanese manufacturers will take advantage of this new opportunity.
Hsieh likewise expects mobile phone manufacturers and consumer device manufacturers to develop and produce PMGs and PMG peripherals. He expects to see a variety of devices displayed at the CeBIT trade show in Hannover, Germany, in March 2003.
This is a translation of an article that first appeared in the Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes. It is reprinted with permission.
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