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Phone As Your Next Computer?

Posted by michael on from the ubiquity dept.

Octagon Most writes "Newsweek magazine ponders if a mobile phone will be 'Your Next Computer' and enlists Frog Design to mock-up an 'Integrated Fusion Device'. With mobile phones selling at a rate of 650 million per year and climbing, there are already three times as many phones in use as personal computers. PalmOne's Jeff Hawkins predicts that devices like the Treo will become the new centers of our digital lives as millions of people own phones but not computers."

6 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Danger Hiptop/Tmobile Sidekick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    What about the Hiptop (aka T-mobile Sidekick in the US)?

    More links here, here (they sometimes go for as low as $29.95), and here.

    I know several people that use this as their only method of connecting to the Internet. I guess it's not the best as a word processor but the developer OS allows for Java applications to be written and uploaded to the device.

    1. Re:Danger Hiptop/Tmobile Sidekick by skidoo2 · · Score: 5, Informative

      They go for $29.99 because they suck and they're old news. Dead product.

      Check out the Treo600 from PalmOne (formerly Handspring). It has a keyboard too and runs Palm OS5. Combine this with Sprint's flat-rate (10 bucks a month) high speed data, and you enter a whole new world Beave.

      I don't work for PalmOne, but I have had a Treo600 since last October, and I'm here to tell you, while it doesn't replace my computers, I can run VNC on it and CONTROL every computer I use. And telnet, and SMS, and IM, and e-mail, and play cool games. And take pictures and video. And slide in a 512MB SD card. And did I mention it plays MP3s, WAVs, OGGs, **AND** Shoutcast streams? Awesome sound quality. At least as good as an iPod. And it's a kickass phone AND it fits in my freaking pocket! It rocks. You have no idea.

      And I'm a "professionial." White-collar type. Not some zit-faced hip-hop kid.

  2. Already true outside of the US by costas · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is basically already true outside of the US where home broadband and home PCs are much less widespread than in North America. This is due to many reasons IMHO, from a different work ethic --where you don't bring work home with you, and thus you have less reason for a home PC-- to cost to lifestyle differences to infrastructure (simply put, GSM phones are much more reliable and sometimes cheaper than regular PSTN lines).

    This extends to other products as well: PDAs and portable game consoles are also much less common than cell phones and phones are taking over those niches too. Nokia is a much bigger threat to Windows than Linux internationally :-)

    So, the article is not really news, it's just US being behind the curve on this one.

  3. Maybe if there were docks everywhere... by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 4, Informative
    For a lot of tasks, there's no substitute for screen real estate, and a full-size keyboard is the way to go for entering large amounts of text - even voice recognition can't compete in many environments.

    If you had a phone/PDA combo that could plug into commonly-available docks, like a laptop dock, you might be on to something. Add in wired networking (which will always be faster than wireless, by the nature of signals) and extra, long-term storage, some good speakers for gravy.

    For now, I have a PDA (Handera 330, sweet little machine), and I love and use it... but I'm typing this in on a desktop, 'cause I code for a living, and coding on a PDA, while possible, is painful, even with a plug-in keyboard.

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
  4. Re:my next pc? are you crazy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I hardly talk on the phone at all, mostly to my girlfriend. Guess what? If you average ~33 minutes a day, you get 1000 per month. Do you know how easy it is to do that? If I talk to my g/f for 20 minutes (a short talk at night about our days) that leaves 13 measly minutes. That's like 3-4 short phone calls with friends! Also keep in mind that if ANYONE calls you, it's a 1 minute phone call. On the weekends, I could be getting 20-30 calls per night (they are free, but still show up in the minutes). So if it's easy for a dork like me rack up 1000 minutes a month, I don't see why it's a problem for a high schooler. By the way, I'm in a tough graduate school, and doing quite well, not a typical social flighty person.

  5. Ergonomics make me uneasy by mfterman · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Nokia N-gauge makes me uneasy, and for that matter some of the early PDA-cell phone combos that are a bit bulky. The fact is that a cell phone has a different style of usage than a PDA and the ideal ergonomics for each are different.

    Still, expanding a cell phone and putting a display and a few more controls on it doesn't strike me as unworkable. I sometimes think existing cell phones are way too small, even if it makes them easier to carry around.

    Computers are multifunction devices. A lot of people here are way too young to remember the dedicated word processing devices that used to be so common. People don't think anything of using their computers for a vast range of things. Now think about setting up a handheld computer that can do a vast range of things as well, including VoIP. Then it looks more reasonable.

    I can easily see cell phones with a small display being used for making voice calls, surfing the web, playing video and music, and being used for playing games as well.

    It will not replace the desktop computer, people still need to sit down with a full size keyboard and a gross display, but the amount of time that people have to spend at a full computer will drop and the amount of time they can spend away from the desk will increase.