Maybe Your Phone Doesn't Need to Be Smart
As the owner of a haggard two-year-old Samsung flip phone — the cheapest I could get that had a display screen on the outside — I greatly appreciate Judi’s guide to the different mobile operating systems. I keep thinking I need a better phone, but I don’t want to commit to one or pay for one or deal with a wireless salesperson. So I putter along with the most limited of mobile capabilities and carry my music player, camera, and “PDA” (in my case, just a paper notebook with my favorite pen) separately.
Maybe this is a new trend: anti-convergence or semi-convergence, multiple devices instead of everything-in-one. It’s a trend towards letting our phones just be phones, then supplementing with PDAs, small PCs, iPods, and cameras as our lifestyles and workstyles demand.
Our article on mobile operating systems spawned two convergence-contrarian comments, the first from Nicola Larosa, who says:
Convergence is not all that is cracked up to be: sometimes it’s better having two different devices, each with different strengths.
Nicola points to a review of the Nokia N800, an “Internet tablet.” It’s a small keyboard-less Linux computer with a really nice screen focused on web browsing and web apps. This could be an interesting complement to a basic phone, though it sounds like you’d want one that can work as a Bluetooth modem so the N800 can access the Internet that way.
Brad Linder agreed with Nicola, and points out the budgetary aspect that’s of concern to many of us finding our way sans big company salary:
I’m with Nicola. Convergence is overrated — of course that probably has a lot to do with my work lifestyle. I spend most of my time in the office, and when I’m in the field all I really need in a mobile phone is the ability to make phone calls.
I use a Windows Mobile PDA with a nice 3.7 inch screen for my appointments, contacts, taking notes on the go, shopping lists, reading the paper (through RSS feeds synchronized with my desktop), listening to music/podcasts, and even playing games and watching movies.
I don’t need my phone to do any of those things. I just need it to have a long battery life and to fit in my pocket.
Not to say it wouldn’t be nice to be able to check my email or mapquest on the go. But it’s not worth an extra $30-70 a month for a data plan to do that.
What do you think? Do you want everything in your phone — email access, Internet, camera, music? Or is something simpler suitable for your needs?
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Put me in the separate camp. There are certain pieces of functionality I always want with me and others I only want in certain situations. It depends on personal preference, though. For me, always having phone and handheld Internet is a must, but music/video playing and picture taking aren’t important enough for me to justify the higher price for a device that supported everything I could ever use.
—Pete
http://nerdguru.net
Me? I have a Nokia 770 tablet.. when I needed a new phone I got a Nokia 6133… Good reception, Bluetooth, nice screen, nice form factor. Does IM if I really need it… but let’s face it… if I ‘m not on my laptop I probably don’t need to be IMing. the question is whether I need the intermediate device (the 770 in my case) – how many times do I need to browse and do other things but dno’t have my laptop?
I believe that it is “entirely” a matter of personal preference. Convergence or semi-convergence, all of this is just seen as a trend but behind this trend there are solid personal efforts. Every time a “style” or “fashion” is produced, it has more or less got to do with people.
I think you can never draw a line on this. Some people would always prefer everything in one device and others would like all of them to be separate. Obviously if there is a commercial photographer, he would not be happy with a cellphone camera and would require better lenses and zoom capabilities of a professional camera.
But what definitely can be said is that “now” is the time. Decide your flavor and you shall get it.
-AJ
Despite all the shiny objects and converged devices, I still like a phone that is a phone, an email device. unfortunately, my days have been so hectic that i have had to give up the iPod. Oh well … need to be productive at times.
I think we cant escape from these features-rich-devices… I personally prefer to have them separately, but when I wanted to get a simple mobile and looked at the market, all phones were supporting mp3, having wide screens, making nice pictures, hude memory storage etc etc….
Apart from that I still carry my nano with me :) its style that matters! somebody above mentioned “fashion”!
37signals talked about this in this post: http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives2/less_phone_the_moto_pebl.php
Hmmm. I’m a bit disturbed at how my latest thinking is paralleling the 37Signals’ guys. ;)
I’m all for convergence, but currently can’t find a “convergence device” that’s even a 1/4 as good as the individual devices on their own.
So as it is I carry a Nokia 1100 (a very ordinary phone), an Ipaq rx3115 (A nice but slightly aging PDA with great Wifi reception), a Powerbook G4 and a 3G 20Gb Ipod. It’s still far too much gear, and I usually carry it all on my shoulder/in my pockets.
So I’d love convergence: I’d like a phone+PDA with a 4″ screen that doesn’t have a keypad, that has great Wifi reception, will run any program I want it to (*cough* Iphone), and will play all my music without me having to look at the screen.
LG
I think some of the “convergence” decision is about how each of us works. I do software development and carry my laptop with me everywhere. So there is my calendar, contact list, music (iTunes), etc. In my case yes, I have an iPod which also serves me as an external hard drive, so I say. I’ve carried a laptop for ages and when it’s not running I make notes and appointments on paper.
I have no need for a camera in my phone, besides it’s too hard to get any images out of it. If I wanted a camera, I’d carry a camera.
I like a cell phone that is a phone. I use a flip phone with an outside screen. I suppose I have some convergence here, as I don’t wear a wrist watch. When I need to know the time, I look at my phone.
I am for convergence – I use a K800i phone which I can access my mail on BUT it is not push. I was just about to jump to a Pearl but then Mr Jobs stood up at MacWorld and that was the end of that route!
So at the mo, it’s a K800i and an iPod. It will be an iPhone.
I’ve been using the term “digital divergence” myself………
I agree with the “horses for courses”
I’ve been using the term “digital divergence” myself………
I agree with the “horses for courses” view you give and you’ve inspired me to revisit the topic on my blog http://bloggershepherd.blogspot.com/2007/03/divergence.html.
I don’t agree with this at all. Unless you are trying to keep costs down, convergence of media devices – cell phone, camera, mp3, web, etc – is the way to go. Sure, it sucks when you need to call someone and look through 10 screens instead of typing the number, but thats a weakness in the software. If the software is designed right, then each “use” should be easy to access. Its better than carrying 5 devices for each of your tasks.
Thats where the iphone is going to be great – they seem to have the UI down for the mp3 player and phone part of it – now to get the rest of these parts in without complicating things.
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