If you are a gadget guy (like me), this is the best time of year. This week’s CES provides a glimpse into all the cool gadgets on the horizon, as well as all of the possibilities which may or may not make it to market. An intriguing discussion taking place at CES this year is the possibility of bringing an iPhone experience to landline phones. Landline phones have definitely lost their “cool” factor in the past few years. After all, a name like “plain” old telephone service (POTS) doesn’t create a lot of inspiration and excitement. The reality of course is that few services in the history of mankind have had the impact that POTS has. So despite its plain nature, it’s still a mainstay in society and will continue to be for a long time. But how do you breathe life into it when the likes of iPhones and Blackberry’s steal all of the excitement. Perhaps the adage, “when in Rome, do like the Romans” applies.

Enter the OpenFrame initiative. OpenFrame is a landline phone concept on display at CES that aims to inject an iPhone like experience into home telephones. It’s designed to work with broadband, and provides a variety of features including synchronization with contact lists and calendars, viewing TV listings, sending IM or SMS, checking the weather, surfing the Web, etc. It can even act as an alarm clock. The idea of course is to add function and variety to that “plain” old device sitting in the vast majority of homes in the developed world. Another goal is to extend the iPhone experience into the home, allowing the real iPhone’s batteries to recharge, literally. Makers of the OpenFrame suggest that wireless’ main handicap is battery life, so when wireless needs a recharge, customers shouldn’t have to give up the experience.

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I was reading a press release from Embarq announcing the launch of their text-to-landline service, which allows wireless SMS text messaging to be received and replied to from a landline phone, and it made me wonder about the life expectancy of traditional voice land lines. If you listen to some analysts, landlines are "dead lines walking," meaning it's just a matter of time before they become irrelevant. The argument is wireless and VoIP services will render traditional landlines useless. Of course, these predictions of total demise are rarely accurate. Landlines aren't in any danger of becoming totally obsolete, but their relevance in everyday life is certainly diminishing.

The promise of fixed mobile convergence (FMC) applications increase not only the likelihood of the long term survival of the landline, but may even reverse the trend of irrelevancy. The ability to "borrow" some of the experience of mobile applications and apply them to landline phones should be the goal of landline carriers. This latest Embarq announcement is a great example of that. There are numbers of others, including find/follow me services, simultaneous ring, and wireless to wireline hand offs. We can't predict whether this latest SMS text service application will be successful, but I do applaud Embarq for trying. They have made a series of FMC announcements this year, which says to me they are not conceding their core business to any competitor. There are a variety of applications available (or coming to market soon) that will add value to the landline experience, including web self care portals, unified messaging, and aforementioned FMC applications. The future reality is that landline carriers will have to adapt. They will have to find ways to make landline phones more valuable. Otherwise, they will fall victim to the competitive reality of today's evolving marketplace.