CHATTING AWAY: Mobile phones are an integral part of every youngster. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

BANGALORE: Its not Generation X or Y anymore. We belong to the age of cellphone and could be rightly called the C (cellular) generation or MP (mobile phone) generation.

An advertisement of Hutch says it all: "Hum Sab Paas Hi To Hai," implying that it has brought people together. You could simply capture your life's wonderful moments using your cellphone.

"See new, hear new, feel new": Nokia strongly believes in it and hence went on making new handsets integrating the latest technologies in them. Initially, it was the bluetooth and the GPRS (General Packaged Radio Service) that started the rock show. Bluetooth helps transfer data from one device to another within 10 metres.

GPRS helps to access and send mails, bringing the Internet right into your mobile phone.

The latest

Now, the latest to hit the high-techno street is EDGE (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution), enhancing speeds many times faster than GPRS while performing a similar function.

GSM

Initially, companies such as Motorola, Hutch, Airtel, Spice and the rest of the family popularised GSM (Global Service Mobile) phones. Later on, companies such as Reliance, TATA Indicomm and the remaining went on launch the CDMA (Code Divided Multiple Access) mobile services. There are various band frequencies such as dual, tri, quad and so on. In India, we use the dual band frequencies-the 900 Hz (Airtel, Spice and more) and the 1800 Hz (Hutch).

Advanced features

"People prefer sets with advanced features like MP3, EDGE and so on," says Nayaz, sales executive at the Nokia Concept Store on Church Street.

The price of the handsets available in the market today varies from Rs. 2,200 to Rs. 10,000 or above without camera and Rs. 5,400 to Rs. 40,000 for those with camera. Nokia has launched its latest models with a bottom that can be twisted, 3G (3rd Generation) technology for video-call conferencing, and with inbuilt memory of 4GB. Coming next is the "push-to talk," something similar to the walkie-talkie chatting that is now everywhere.

But as the misuse of camera phones and the Delhi Public School MMS scandal proved, technology could backfire in wrong hands.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail