Semiconductor technology--Multiple radios on a Smartphone

In reading about the future of Smartphone one theme that runs through is the need to connect to the cloud and that cloud contains many different sources of information. In fact, there will be an increasing number of information points to connect to and so we'll see more radios coming into the mobile device.

Today there are up to six radios on a smartphone. These include Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, Cellular, TV, and perhaps WiMAX in the near future.
With so many radios on one phone, the next step is to start reusing the radios from application to the next. Here's one example of that concept. Several chip vendors are starting to combine multiple radios onto one chip such as Broadcom's combination of GPS, Bluetooth, and FM.

The next step in technology evolution is the migration of radios to other devices. This becomes possible the semiconductor circuitry surrounding the radios is becoming more integrated and thus cheaper to build into lower cost devices. For a complete history of wireless, please check out this site.

Best regards,

Hall T.