An article in last week’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) looks at how advances in data transmission speeds, battery life, and storage capacity are changing cell phones into multipurpose devices.

The transition is undoubtedly underway – look no further than the Blackberry or the soon to be released iPhone. But the article lists emerging services, such as using a phone as a television, credit card, or GPS locator, which take the phenomenon to a brand new level. In the next couple of years, the article says:

“Users will also get sophisticated software applications for surfing the mobile Web, and more services to connect with friends, share videos and exchange photos. And they'll likely see mobile devices that can roam seamlessly across Wi-Fi hot spots, cellular networks and new high-speed data networks, bringing a much faster and smoother surfing experience.”

In other words, cell phones will pretty much be able to do whatever we want them to. I’ve been thinking a lot about cell phones and their role in our culture ever since I went to India a couple of months ago. And this seems like a pretty good time to go out on a limb with a bold prediction: Within ten years the cell phone – or more realistically its evolutionary heir – will replace the laptop as the dominant business tool.

There really shouldn’t be any doubt that the cell phone can replace the laptop – the article focuses on services like movies because everyone can relate to it, but it is just as easy to design and build applications for corporate users. The bigger question is whether there is a market for services targeted to businesses, i.e. will the cell phone replace the laptop. In the U.S. I expect a lot of resistance. We’ve been using PCs since before the days of the Internet and in that time we’ve become a computer-centric society. And we don’t really have any infrastructure limitations restricting how or where we use our computers – you can plug your laptop in just about anywhere and connect to the Internet. But the U.S. and parts of Europe are really the only places in the world that can say that.

The developing world doesn't have the infrastructure in place to support a laptop culture. And the buying habits in those countries reflect this. India, for example,

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