Conference to Plug Omnipresent Connected Future

If you think it’s bad having to listen to someone’s annoying cell phone conversations while dining out, just wait until you have to put up with them talking into their watch or hand-held computer. That time is coming sooner than you think, as electronics companies increasingly bet that anywhere you go, from any place--and almost any device--you’ll want to be connected with other people. Many of the world’s top electronic software and hardware companies are coming together this week in Chicago at the Personal Communications Industry Assn.’s GlobalXChange conference to offer a tantalizing glimpse at the not-too-distant future. Motorola Inc. and Palm Inc., for instance, were set to announce today they are jointly developing a so-called smart phone for early 2002 release that will serve as a wireless Internet device, phone and personal organizer. Details on the device were sketchy, although both companies envision the phone’s color display will be larger than screens on current Web-enabled phones and smaller than the 3-inch-by-4-inch displays on Palm organizers. Including Palm’s operating system would allow users to take and make phone calls while jotting down notes, addresses, phone numbers and e-mails. The Boston-based Yankee Group estimates there will be more than 1 billion Web-enabled mobile devices worldwide by 2003, generating as much as 63% of transactions on the Web. Research firms predict such wireless devices are likely to supplant the desktop computer in coming years as the principal means of Internet communication, but they caution manufacturers have yet to come up with a form that’s been a major hit with consumers.