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back to article Five mobile devices per person for 2040?

Australia needs an extra 100 million phone numbers for mobile devices, says the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which has taken the first step towards that goal by setting out plans for new numbers that start with “05”. All Australian mobile numbers have, until now, started with “04”. ACMA says the new 05 …

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  1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

    If you're going to have separate ID numbers for multiple devices it probably time to give up the expectation taht they be something that the end users has to deal with more than once. Either move to a DNS like system or issue numbers to persons not devices.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Convergence, my arse

    Gosh, it seems just ten years ago when Symbian and the rest of the industry were banding about the buzzword 'convergence' like a wannabe WAG around a football team.

    Then, Symbian's first boss stepped down and said he didn't think convergence was the future at all, and everyone thought that was proof he was mad and needed to go.

    But when you now see how so many people like to keep separate devices, either because they're not as smart as their phones and need to think of separate devices as doing different tasks, or because they have different parts to their life and want to keep them separated on separate phones/gadgets, you can't help but think the future will be anything but converged.

    Besides, was it ever a sensible business modal to have consumers all wanting just one product? Any fool could have told you that when it finally comes down to it, manufacturers would must rather each consumer went out and bought a tower PC for the family, a laptop for personal and work use, a smartphone for all the usual reasons, a tablet for doing simple 'laptop' stuff such as watching videos, casual web browsing and playing games, a networked PVR with Internet access for the living room, and then the half-a-ton of accessories and consumables that go with all the above.

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  3. PAT MCCLUNG

    Clerk

    Five mobile devices in 2040? I would bet on less than one. In fact, mobile devices are the next hi-tech bubble.

    Who wants to buy (for hard-earned money) a device whose primary purpose is to sell your location and behaviour to advertisers (and other even less savory characters) worldwide. You must be nuts!!!!

    Get rid of this crap and the crap tracker apps. I am waiting with glee to make a fortune shorting all these "mobile" stocks!!! I have a beautiful $24 four band dual sim card GPRS mobile phone. All I will ever need for a decade. The purpose of a mobile phone is to talk to someone. On the phone.

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    1. Originone
      Reply Icon

      Re: Clerk

      "The purpose of a mobile phone is to talk to someone. On the phone."

      I know a number of people who make this assertion, but they and you are making the mistake of thinking that these devices are called mobile phones because thats what they are. The name mobile phone is just an historical quirk of the way they were developed, and often talking to someone is now the least part of what a mobile phone is used for, to the point where it is not unreasonable to do away with the talk to people function altogether as evidenced by 3g connected tablets which are really just large form factor mobile phones without the talky bit.

      I can asure you I am not alone in saying that the $500 worth of call credit that comes on my plan goes largely untouched each month but I always use at least %50 of the 2gb of data thats included. Maybe you can't think of anything you would want to do with a "mobile phone" other than talk to someone, that doesn't mean you know something the rest of us don't, it just shows a distinct lack of imagination.

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