It was my son's 13th birthday at the weekend and it got me thinking back to 1994 when as an expectant father I rented a pager (or beeper depending on where you are) so that I could be contacted when my partner went into labour (I got my first mobile phone free when I bought a new car 4 months later - and quickly zoomed off round to the pertrol station to pick up my free glasses, those were the days!). Whilst I obviously know they're still used in hospitals for example I was surprised, after a quick google, to discover that pagers are still widely available and demand is still high.

No need for a pager three years ago when my daughter was born as by that time I was carrying about the HTC 'Blue Angel'  which would have been probably my 7th or 8th mobile. I'm two mobiles further on now and just about to upgrade again to one with a built in GPS receiver. My how things have changed in the last decade or so, a phone that tells me where to go - mind you, I don't need a phone for that one with any number of people providing that service.

It does make me wonder what mobile communications will be like in tomorrow's world. My vote would go for the thumb phone where you'd have a speaker implanted in one thumb and a mic in the other with your fingers being sensors for the dialing numbers. Go on try it, phone someone using the thumb phone and you'll see how user friendly it would be. You could even have a video camera and screen in the palm of your hand for video calls. Even better for those who are thumb impaired, the mic could be implanted into the middle finger of their left hand. Just imagine all those people making a call on their way to work now.