3G Terminals

With the introduction of 3G networks it becomes evident that manufacturers of mobile phones, smartphones and other gadgets now need to transform their production in general in order to be able to meet the growing demand for handsets supporting the various standards of the new generations like Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) Evolution-Data Optimized (EvDO) and many others. It is clear that none of the existing mobile phones in the world can support all of the technologies at once, firstly because there is no need in putting them all into one device as they are used in different countries where different strategies of development of mobile telephony was accepted. If there was such a mobile phone supporting all the existing technologies and able to work in every corner of the globe with all the features like fast internet connection (with all the known "G's" combined together), ability to make video calls, to watch TV programs in high quality, with the global system of navigation (GPS) built in, as well as with a high resolution screen and all the known technologies of wireless data transfer like Bluetooth, infrared port, Wi-Fi, WiMAX and what not, such a "telephone" if we could call it that, would probably weight as much as a microwave oven and would probably look the same, too... It would be interesting to see such a device though.

Anyway, with the existing variety of technologies and possibilities they provide, for the purpose of greater income the biggest manufacturers of mobile telephones are trying to combine as many technologies in their handsets as possible. With the scientific and technical evolution this task becomes easier now, but it wasn't that way before. The first 3G telephones were known to consume excessive electric power and got incredibly warm while doing the fast data transfer that this technology was primarily designed for. That's why we're experiencing the great rise of the third generation communications only now - the manufacturers have learned how to make smaller and less consuming handsets with longer battery lives. But here we have another problem. Having learned that, manufacturers now need to take into consideration the fact that the 3G technology is not the only thing that must be put into a mobile phone, although in some countries it is. For example in Japan, which is by the way the first country to introduce the new high speed third generation technology and having up to 70 percent of all the customers subscribed to the new technology, it turned out unnecessary to create mobile phones that supported both 2G and 3G formats. Japanese consumers are more demanding to the appearance of the handsets they are using, preferring more compact models – this compactness is only possible by excluding the 2G component from the terminal - and it was possible for companies that were pioneers in introducing the new standards. In Europe the situation is completely different. European customers need more functionality in their devices, with the ability to roam in 2G networks of which there are many, while the new 3G ones are just being introduced and do not cover as many territories as the second generation networks do. Besides, the previously existing trend to make smaller phones seems to have passed in Europe. Now it's trendier to have huge phone with a huge quality screen for lots of features like watching movies, TV programs, playing games etc.