While it's good news that Intel and Micron introduced the fastest NAND flash memory chip to date, there's more good news on the horizon. A substantial decline in the price of NAND flash memory has gadget companies in a race to bring forward tech with larger storage capacities and lower pricetags. Details in the full article.

Many phones with access to email are now available in the market, and there is no need to spend big bucks to afford a phone with such feature. Given that more people are demanding email on the go, research firm Gartner believes that SMS would soon be a goner.

According to the firm, one of five people will be using mobile email by 2010. 20 million wireless email users today will grow to a whopping 350 million on the same year, said firm's research vice president Monica Blasso. She noticed that the availability of low-cost phones with mobile email functions is driving consumer adaptation.

"Once email becomes available more or less free of charge by default on your mobile handset, people will gravitate to that rather than just continuing to use SMS," added Robin Simpson, mobile and wireless research director at Gartner Australasia. This is due to mobile email access being offered free as part of mobile phone contracts in Australia, he said.

According to Simpson, low mobile email uptake in Australia can be credited to high costs, but competition between carriers like Hutchison 3 and Virgin Mobile will drop prices rapidly. "The interesting thing is that SMS, if you look at it in terms of actual cost for the data, is really expensive, and where we're heading is you'll get a free email package when you sign up to your monthly plan," he continued.

Call history. Calculator. Multiple ringtones. Text Messaging. These are just a few of the features mobile phone users take for granted. At a glance, one may think that little by little, mobile phones are conquering the landline phone market.

But think again. Despite the booming technology of mobile phones (ever-increasing file storage space, increasing camera pixels and whatnot), more people and businesses still cling to their desktop phones.

Cisco Systems, Avaya Inc, as well as many other telephony companies have developed advanced mobile communications solutions, such as dual-mode phones that work with extension dialing that comes with PBX (private branch exchange) systems, even on the go. Another variant, which are softphones for laptops, are also adding more features and are decidedly more user-friendly than desktop and landline phones.

However, despite of all the improvements that mobile communications has to offer, many people still prefer using the more traditional landlines as well as their Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) counterparts. "People still relate to their physical phone. It's like their office space. It's very near and dear to their hearts," said a network administrator from a Canadian engineering company, who asked to remain anonymous.

There are more reasons beside mere sentimentality. There are the still-recurring issues that plague mobile phones, such as lesser sound quality compared to their more traditional siblings, and the softphones' dependence on PC performance.

With about 500 million users, desktop and landline phones can't be phased out that easily. "It would take about five to seven years for wireless phones to replace wired," according to Ken Dulaney, mobility analyst for Gartner Inc.