IBM India resarch lab to lead research on mobile devices

Mumbai, Apr 21 (UNI) Celebrating its 10th anniversary IBM's India Research Lab, today unveiled a new initiative to bring even more features and functions to mobile devices as they continue to rival the PC as the primary tool for Web-based business, education, communication and entertainment.

IBM India Research Lab Director Dr Daniel Das said in a release that IBM was launching projects that would make a mobile device even easier to use than a PC. ''The world is entering the Era of the Mobile Web'' he added.

For the first time ever, more people will have a mobile phone than a regular telephone. Mobile devices outnumber PCs by three to one, credit cards by two to one and TVs by two to one. IBM's Institute for Business Value predicts that the number of mobile Web users would grow by 191 per cent from 2006 to 2011 to reach one billion. This proliferation of mobile devices and mobile Web users signals an incredibly lucrative growth opportunity for businesses.

The new IBM Research programme announced today would entail a number of efforts to bring simple, easy to use services to the billions of people in the world who have bypassed using the personal computer as their primary method of accessing technology, and are instead using their mobile phone.

As part of the mobile Web initiative, IBM was making major investments in mobile software and hardware platforms and has opened several worldwide telecom solution labs focused on research and development. The projects, which would be led out of India, but also were being incubated in IBM's eight global labs in six countries, included: The Spoken Web, Voice-enabled mobile commerce, Instant Translation, Real-time communication between multiple languages through mobile devices, SoulPad, Enabling any portable device to carry your computing application in your pocket BuddyComm, Social networking on-the-go Good Samaritan, and Mobile healthcare information made available in any emergency situation.

UNI VK GR SKB1754