Convergence? Who Needs It?
from the give-me-best-o-breed dept
When it comes to the convergence of PDAs and mobile phones most people are saying they're perfectly fine with two devices for now. They say people are just willing to carry multiple devices. I'm not sure that's true. I'd say it has a lot more to do with the fact that most converged devices make you sacrifice important things that lessen the value of having a converged device. People buy the device for very specific things (as the article points out), and if the device can't do those things well, then it's not worth getting. As converged devices get better, then, it's likely that people will be more willing to adopt them. That is, it appears that functionality trumps carry-ability at this point - but if you can do both, people would be thrilled. That's part of the reason why the new Treo 600 has been so hot lately. It's the first device that comes close to still being a good converged device. I'm sure the next generation devices will go even further.
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Treo 600 is almost there.
(Wi-Fi with SIP.....mmmmmm)
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Do you really want everything in one devide?
I'm not convinced that the everything-in-one-device approach is the right one (or the one users will like the most). Quite the contrary I think we will see the phone as it is today split into more devices. There will be the communication unit, the speaker unit, the microphone unit, the camera unit, the keyboard unit, the music playing unit, etc.
This way the preferences of each user can be met. You can choose to take the professional camera with you sometimes and leave the camera at home during others. Sometimes you want your light headset for speaker & microphone; sometimes you want to use the speakers of your car stereo, etc.
This also allows people to make their phones even more fashion items than they are today. You use your ultra-slim silver coated headset one day and your wireless stereo headset listening to freshly downloaded songs from your iPod the next.
Something like what IXI is doing.
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Someone Please
Is anybody out there?
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Re: Someone Please
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