Small, but disruptive

摘要

Technology conferences often resemble massive religious services, worshipping yet another digital calf. The Mobile World Congress, the wireless industry's largest gathering, which took place this week in Barcelona, is notorious for its tendency to bless a new technology as the "next big thing" each year. Its choice this year? Femtocells, or tiny wireless base-stations, which prompted a flurry of announcements and chatter about their prospects. Some even likened them to personal computers, saying that they will be to the wireless industry what pcs were to the computer industry. Might femtocells really be that disruptive?