The functions mentioned before need to sit on a device. Ideally just one device.
Buit today, we use many different devices.
Here’s a list of portable device categories we have in use today along with a guideline size (smallest first) and an example device.
Mobile Phone (3″) – E.g. Nokia 6280
Smartphone (3″) – e.g. Nokia N70, HTC Tornado
Pocket PC (4″) – E.g. DELL Axim
Mini Tablet (5-9″) – E.g. Nokia 770
Mini laptop (10-12″) – E.g. OQO
Tablet (8-15″) – E.g. Pepperpad + Windows tablets
Laptop (12-17″) – Many variants from 1kg-3kg. Many examples.
Desktop PC – All sizes!
One of those devices is becoming the ‘always-there’ device and a lot of technologies are migrating towards it. The mobile phone. (including the smartphone)
What we want is to put the most functionality on the ‘always-there’ device. By doing that we get the most functionality with us as much of the time as possible. That makes sense to me.
I want to make a short note about the smartphone/pocketpc combo device. Its a sub-segment of phones that have bigger screens and often thumboards. I’m not ignoring these devices, I just see them as a specialist device aimed at the business user. Besides, you’ll see in my later posts that even these devices cant really offer complete convergence.
