Jeff Hawkins On How Handhelds Will Morph Into Communicators

from the the-obvious-path... dept

I'm sure this is mostly preaching to the converted here, but here is an interview with Jeff Hawkins, where he talks about changing Handspring from a company making handheld computers to one making "communicator" devices. He also points out that he thinks the world will "flip-flop" and desktop and laptop computers will be seen as accessories to your personal wireless communicator device. Not one to shy away from bold analogies, he compares the shift for Handspring to Intel's shift from memory chips to microprocessors. He also points out that one of the biggest challenges they face in this shift is that they're now relying on the carriers to support their products - which is a lot more troublesome than just going straight to the market. When asked about WiFi, he says he's a big believer in it, but realizes that WiFi and cellular systems have different benefits (and costs) - and depending on what a user needs to do, neither solution is going to always be the right one. However, for the most part, he seems to believe that handheld wireless devices make more sense offering just cellular data, instead of WiFi (or a combined solution).