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Start-up brings
storage to wireless The same technology
that lets computer users store information remotely on the Internet is on
its way to cell phones. Beginning later this
year, users of cell phones that have an Internet browser made by Access,
whose customers include Japanese wireless giant NTT DoCoMo, will be able
to use files that once were off limits because they were larger than their
phones were built to handle. The technology behind
this is called "remote storage," which lets consumers take
files, store them on the Internet, then access them whenever they want.
It's been a part of the wired Internet's business for more than half a
decade. Storage-system makers
such as EMC and Network Appliance have built huge businesses selling their
wares to corporations and telecommunications companies trying to organize
vast sums of digital information. Access would like to tap a similar need
in the wireless networking market. Access is using U.S.
company i-Drive to make this possible, according to a deal announced
Tuesday. Analysts say there are more of these types of deals in the works.
Access' service has a
chance to take off, analysts say, especially in Asian and European
countries where the cell phone is often the computing vehicle of choice. "I expect the
most interest in the near term is from markets outside the United States
like in Japan where there is a consumer base that wants to manage and
access rich media," said Jupiter Research analyst Joe Laszlo. He and other analysts
say that regardless of where the service is used, the idea is intriguing
because it addresses one of the longest-standing problems that phone
customers and the telephone industry have faced. There are tens of
thousands of software developers right now trying to create new things for
a phone to do. Telephone service providers are building networks to stream
these same software applications to cell phones. Even handset makers
have been preparing phones that can do the stuff that once was considered
science fiction, like installing full-color screens for videoconferencing,
interactive game playing or global positioning. But one major
roadblock has always been in the way: A cell phone is small for a reason;
it needs to be portable and unobtrusive. But sacrificing size also means
sacrificing the amount of hardware installed on the phone. A typical phone comes
with the ability to store about 2 megabits of information. A music file,
on the other hand, is anywhere between 5 megabits and 8 megabits. But by using remote
storage, the file doesn't have to live inside the phone's limited memory.
Instead, bits and pieces are sent one at a time for a phone to use. The
technique is known as streaming. "The reason this
wasn't done earlier, quite frankly, is that the technology that we dealt
with and the technology available to the mass market wasn't there,"
said Marty Smuin, Access' executive vice president.
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