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Mobile Phone - Convergence Point For iPod, Others?

Posted by simoniker on from the famed-all-in-one dept.

Nagen writes "DrunkenBlog has an intriguing essay arguing that the mobile phone is the primary convergence point for digital devices and will soon cause iPod sales to evaporate. Perhaps more interesting is the idea that the iPod is an expendable pawn in a larger battle of who will control the gateway of all legal content to the user."

3 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. Impending Black Hole by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    As everything in the world becomes integrated into a cell phone, it'll approach a critical software mass and collapse in upon itself, forming a sort of firmware black hole.

    Solution: Buy the next model.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  2. Re:iPod haters by dmitrygr · · Score: 5, Funny

    would you please refrain from giving away my root password?

    --
    -------
    1. Enjoy your job
    2. Make lots of money
    3. Work within the law

    Choose any two.
  3. Re:One thing I promise you... by grrrl · · Score: 5, Informative
    Not to burst your bubble but have you compared the square miles of The United States of America to that of the UK?

    have you compared the US to australia? we have very good coverage in all major cities and extended cdma coverage in the bush - ok so it doesnt cover the whole continent but people dont live over the whole continent like they do in the us (in the us protion of nth america). with the # of people in the US it *does* seem backward that better services arent in place.

    Pods are popular but guess what? Most people over 50 don't own them and would never purchase one-the same folks that comprise 2/3rds of the GDP and don't want to be on the Internet.

    do you have any basis for this argument? I know a *lot* of over 50s who are on the internet, and quite a few who have ipods! my dad spends hours ripping his cds in itunes to build up his music library

    but unless Telcos are challenged with losing customer bases at alarming rates to outside competitors they don't move to improve services for customers. It just doesn't make sense to them to give new services if customers aren't canceling accounts.

    now this i agree with - here in little old oz we have the major player telstra, and their mobile (and home!) plans get worse and worse, but people keep coming back and signing up new plans to get the phones, while dropping the features (like offpeak rates, per second billing, free chat, reduced sms etc)
    some of the other mobile providers have better services but crap coverage and delays between carriers (nothing like getting sms's 3 days late!) - so the migration is slow

    coming back to the mobile phone feature issue though, i think people *will* buy mobile phones with more features, but only because they get them for free with a new plan when their "old" (usually i think phones with flash cards are the way to go, but they will never surpass the ipod because they will never do *everything* well - like pictures for example - who cares??? i have a few photos of friends so their faces come up when it rings but its so low quality its just a gimik. i will never want to look at photos on my phone, and the interface will never be as good as the ipod for music (the more i use my new nokia the more i wish i could get rid of half the menu options!)