Gimme Embedded 3G

For some reason, I have Britney Spears in my head singing “Gimme More.” Now, the Britster is not usually my cup ‘o tea, but today it sounds oh so right.

Because I do want more. Lots more. As detailed in a VON feature article, it’s been snoozeapalooza over there at CES and Macworld. Well, except for the LG watch-phone, which kind of looks like a prop from the original Battlestar Galactica. Not so James Bond-ish, but I still find it stone-cold foxy.

Point is, it’s been boooooring. I’m gearing up for announcements from Microsoft and Cisco out of CES today, it’s true, and Palm Inc. might shake things up with the Nova OS announcement Thursday, but otherwise I’m kind of over it.

The whole thing has started me thinking on the idea that I postulated in that article that device and gadget makers aren’t really innovating to take advantage of all the awesomely fast 3G that’s being deployed out there. I mean, sure, dongles make a lot of sense for laptops — what happens if your laptop’s internal HSPA modem is good to go for the coming 14mbps on AT&T but then suddenly there’s a 21mbps HSPA+ upgrade and other laptops that support it? Get the nerd herd to crack it open and replace the modem? Get a new laptop for every wireless upgrade? IT purchasing cycles won’t like that. And when it comes to CDMA EV-DO, of course you’re dealing with different flavors for different carriers so the economies of scale for embedded modems aren’t attractive for manufacturers. I get it. I really do.

But what about embedded 3G in netbooks, which are becoming as cheap as handsets, and what about handsets that support the HSPA+ network speeds? What about adding wireless connectivity in general to some of the currently non-connected devices? OK, I know the T-Mobile Cameo drew a lot of fire and no one wants to make the same mistakes, but that’s a business model issue, not a device issue. So gadgeters, give us something, anything? Embedded wireless is a business model that we have to crack — I do think it’s the key to innovating for the future despite the impulse to cut back and take no risks — stagnate — with the economy the way it is. But to quote Howl: “I’ve seen the best minds of my generation, starving, hysterical, naked”... and not focusing on the future, and how to make it better than what we have today.

Gimme gimme embedded 3G. I think some telecom geek band somewhere out there should record that, Weird Al-style. Hey, do you think we could get Glenn Lurie to do the video?