On October 31, 2011, statisticians at the United Nations believe that the world reached a global population of seven billion people. Industry analysts estimate that, a few weeks later, the six billionth active cellular phone connection was achieved. Even considering that some people have multiple phone connections, it is still incredible that the majority of human beings on our planet own a mobile handset – across all geographies, cultures and societies. The ability to connect to people and information, wherever you are and whenever you want to, is bringing into reality the concept of the global village and a shared humanity. Yet at least as amazing is the fact that this ubiquitous product is also the world's most advanced consumer electronics product ever. It is small, light, portable and affordable to most people. It can perform ever more functions, with increasing performance. How is this possible and how has this come to be? What really is involved in designing and bringing to market both the inner technology and the final desirable mobile handsets? How can new products be developed so quickly, and why are there so many to choose between?

This book is aimed at anyone who is curious about such questions, yet has limited time to invest. You can read the book completely over a weekend if you need a lot of knowledge quickly, or you can dip in and out of the book to gain insight into particular areas as you need them. Blaise Pascal in his Provincial Letters wrote “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” We have found the truth in this, as condensing down the key insights from as complex an industry as the mobile handset industry into the convenient format of the Wireless Essentials series has been a significant undertaking – it would have been easier to write a larger volume. However, the format offers you the benefit of being able to gain a really good appreciation of the technology, design processes and market issues involved in mobile handset design relatively quickly. As you read the book, we trust that you will gain good insight into a set of common design and market issues which re-appear consistently as we look at different aspects of both the underlying component technology and the handset product design process.