Rise of Smartphones May Sound Death Knell for Old Push-to-Talk Radios

摘要

Push-to-talk radios - as generations of U.S. troops have known them - are on their way out. Handing an infantryman a device the size and shape of a brick that can only perform one task, voice communications, may soon be akin to issuing him a musket.The Army is pressing ahead with experiments that marry new software-defined radios to commercially available devices such as Androids and iPhones. But that is only an evolutionary step, military communications experts have said.Manufacturers who supply the military with communication devices said they are preparing for the day when radios not only look more like the smartphones that have become ubiquitous in the civilian world, but perform a multitude of tasks.