Mobile Phone as Home Computer?

theodp writes "Citing millions of Japanese consumers as proof it can work, MIT's Philip Greenspun hasissued a call for comments on his hypothesis that the mobile phone can function as a home computer for a substantial number of consumers if it's paired up with an appliance that drives the phone from a full-size keyboard and display."

Comments

General computers

[panxerox]

This is already happening, as functions of the pc are co opted by smaller dedicated devices, mp3 players, pdas for contact storage and other devices. Its long been known that J6P doesn't need 512mb of video ram or a terabyte of disk storage and as the capabilities of "phones" increases this will become a viable option. Unfortunately this is probably what the content providers really want, a movement away from general purpose computers that give users too much control over the content that they buy. Os and device managers will be able to lock in proprietary file types and of course the OS themselves. No not the end of the personal computer just the end of the general computer.

HipTop

[tentimestwenty]

A friend bought a new HipTop phone/PDA/camera device. It is amazing. The various functions are about 80% of what a laptop can do, but that 80% is done right and only the stuff you need. It could easily replace most of my phone, e-mail, web and photo needs plus it's always on and you can fit it in your pocket.

Re:HipTop

[Anonymous Cowdog]

>The hiptop is the Hotel California of mobile devices.

To clarify why my comment above is relevant to Greenspun's article, if this type of model (lock-in) carries over into a device that does all your computing needs, that would be scary for consumers.

Right now desktop systems are pretty open. You can write your own programs for them, for example. Phones are much less open. OK, all that is obvious.

What's not well known outside the hiptop user community is just how closed some systems can be.

My understanding of the Danger hiptop is this: To put programs you write yourself on a Danger hiptop, you must become a registered developer, and even then you can not share your programs with other users unless they are also registered developers, or unless Danger gives its official stamp of approval that your application will be THE representative application for its category (calculator, etc.) in their commercial catalog. If they have a choice of approving a free calculator program, versus a less nice commercial calculator that their carrier customers will make money from, which one do you think they approve of? That's right, the commercial one.

Imagine if this model became the model for desktop computing. Everything goes through an approval process, where approval is based on the business interests of some gatekeepers. Not very good for consumers. So while the form factor may be capable as Greenspun suggests, let's hope the business models to not follow.