Yet wireless communications in these areas are advancing rapidly at a time when the mobile-phone industry is approaching saturation point in rich countries and the average revenue per user is sagging. And they hold a lot of promise: there are far more things than people that can be wirelessly linked, from doors and windows to machines and trees.
Just as a milestone was reached in 1998 when the volume of global internet traffic through America overtook voice traffic, so a turning point will come when devices connected to the network overtake people, whether in number, bandwidth or calls. This may happen sooner than expected.
Stratton Scalvos, the boss of VeriSign, which operates part of the internet's address system, notes that around 12% of address traffic involves computers linking to other computers, without a person at either end. John Roese, the chief technology officer of Nortel, a telecoms-equipment vendor, expects the amount of machine-to-machine communication to pull ahead of human calls and web clicks some time between 2009 and 2011 as cameras, cars, utility meters, home security systems and the like continuously send data across the network. Vivek Ranadivé, the boss of Tibco, a software developer for corporate IT systems, says the number of computer transactions automatically started by other computers is already higher than that initiated by people.
Oddly enough, it is the success of mobile phones that has fuelled the rise of wireless communications among objects rather than people, promoting innovation and bringing down prices. Take Texas Instruments, which leads the market for chips in mobile phones on the GSM standard. In 2003 it began work on a single low-cost radio chip that included support for a digital music player, FM stereo radio, camera and colour display with a longer battery life. A prototype was built in 2004 and bulk production began in 2006. In the fourth quarter of last year alone the firm shipped 10m of these chips. The chips have dropped from $50 apiece to around $5, and a phone that would have cost $250 five years ago is now $25. But rather than become even cheaper, in future the chips will offer more features, says Greg Delagi, who heads TI's wireless unit.