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| Want One Handheld Computer That Does Everything? |
November 10, 2005 |
By Peter Wolchak
DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH. IF YOU WANT TO CARRY ONLY ONE DEVICE YOU’RE IN FOR A LONG WAIT.
Here’s a typical scenario: you’re a business traveller who wants to communicate while away from the office. And by communicate, you mean check e-mail, edit a spreadsheet, consult a PDF, view an instructional video and refer to a couple of Web sites — all while taking part in a video conference call over either a cellular network or an IP link, like a Wi-Fi hotspot in an airport.
And, because of the “traveller” part of the picture, you don’t want to lug a laptop around to do it. You want a handheld computer you can clip on a belt or drop in a pocket.
Unfortunately, there is no one PDA that fully fills the above bill. Those that come closest, the Palm LifeDrive and Treo 650 or the HP iPaq hw6500, either don’t have Wi-Fi, have a screen too small to really work on numbers, or can’t handle streaming video.
But if customers want it, why aren’t manufacturers delivering it? It’s not really a tech problem: these functions can all be had in separate devices.
One issue is complexity; every feature that is added makes the device harder to use, according to Eddie Chan, an analyst at IDC Canada. “Most users would be overwhelmed by a device that did everything.”
Michael Moskowitz, the general manager, Americas International at Palm in Mississauga, Ont., agreed handheld design starts and ends with usability. “We will not offer anything that creates a trade-off from the usability standpoint,” he said. “This is different than the PC industry. With a PC it’s all about more, better and faster, but with mobile technology people want to use their devices quickly — take out the device, use it and put it away.
“We can build anything, but we have to always keep in mind that great products should always be developed with simplicity in mind, so they are intuitive, easy to use and physically small.”
Also, when people say they want an all-in-one device, they don’t expect any trade-offs in performance. A PDA that plays music should perform as well as an iPod. But so far a device that does too many things does not do any of them very well.
“We like to think of an Utopian device that does everything: voice communication, entertainment, storage, e-mail. But any time we talk about convergence you have to equate that to trade-offs — you are not going to get the best of everything,” Chan said. “Think about camera phones: they are less than one megapixel (in resolution), so while they’re great they are not going to replace your digital camera. You can’t make prints with those photos.
“Or, why is Apple doing so well with the iPod? Because it does one thing very well. Then consider the Nokia N-Gage: a device like that hasn’t resonated, because hardcore gamers want a larger screen and more titles.”
All of which means that, for the next number of years, there will be no one handheld device. Instead, manufacturers will continue to segment the buying public and offer a range of devices.
“If you are a manufacturer you have to decide which group you are tackling,” Chan said. “Are you going after the music fans, or the people who want documents and portable storage, or is voice the primary use, or maybe it’s communication with back-office data and applications?”
But, will we ever see one perfect device? “I don’t have an answer in terms of a specific timeline; I can’t even specify what 2010 will bring,” said Palm’s Moskowitz.
“But I can say that we will have larger and better screens; support for other radios such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX, EVDO, UMTS, etc.; voice over IP; more storage; better battery life; and smaller, slimmer and sleeker. “But also some units that are bigger,” he said.
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