Lisa DiCarlo, 05.09.05, Forbes.com
NEW YORK - Still using your cell phone just to make phone calls? How passe.
If the seers are correct, within a year your cell phone will be capable of live television, music downloads and playback, videogames, storing movie clips and viewing everything from photo albums to digital home movies. In short, more than you may have ever thought possible.
Of course, there are high hurdles to clear before all this great stuff happens -- complex rights agreements, conflicting technology standards and the sometimes fractious relationship between carriers and content providers -- but everyone involved has a stake in making it work. How big a stake? It's almost too big to put a number on.
Pacific Crest Securities, which hosted a mobile entertainment conference in New York on May 6, believes the sector will be the next driver for growth in the technology industry, and the dominant investment opportunity for the next decade.