COMMENTARY--Why is it so difficult to come up with the perfect marriage between phone and PDA?
Last month, I talked about the Tablet PC and whether or not that format had what it takes to carve out a niche in the mobile computing market. But there's another format that's vying for the attention of on-the-go users: the mobile phone/PDA combination.
It's all about convergence, isn't it? The one problem is that too often convergence means compromise. The problem seems to be especially evident in the case of mobile phone/PDA convergence. Much of this is unavoidableââ,¬"to get a device small enough to be considered as a phone, you lose valuable screen real estate. Make the display large enough to handle proper PDA work, and you've got something no one in this age of matchbox-sized mobiles would be caught dead holding up to their ear. Sure, there's the hands-free option for these larger devices, but then you're faced with another compromise: walk around with your earphone in all day long, or do that panicky fumble for it each time the phone rings.
Great-looking PDA. Probably the most attractive combination device I've seen is the PC-EPhone. But then, this is more for its PDA functionality and excellent display size and dimensions. As a phone, however, it just can't compete with the features and handiness of dedicated phones currently on the market. And for its size, it still doesn't have a dedicated finger (or thumb) operated keyboard. If you're going to be doing a lot of e-mailing (or even SMSing), I think almost any form of key entry is hard to beat.
The Siemens SX45 is another combination device with a colour display. It's a more convenient size, but of course this comes at the expense of screen real estate.
The Handspring Treo 270 has an excellent array of features, comes with a thumbboard for text input, and has a colour display (though one not nearly as big as that on the PC-EPhone). And yet it seems to me to be just slightly on the unwieldy side.
What do you want? Now I can hear many readers saying, -What do you want? It's a combination device and of course there are going to be compromises." But the whole situation has me wondering, do we really need a combined device at all?
A combination that seems to have everything going for it is a full-featured phone and a separate dedicated PDA, with a Bluetooth connection between the two. At a recent press function, Vodafone employees demonstrated how this type of package was being introduced for use within that company. Salespeople have been given a Sony Ericsson T68i and Compaq iPaq Pocket PC, which interact via Bluetooth, and with this combination are able to handle everything from e-mails to spreadsheets and Word processing. Both devices fit into a leather case smaller than a standard organiser, and only the necessary unit need be removed for any specific job.
Of course, there is the concern of having to deal with two separate sets of chargers, batteries, etc, but on the other hand, one flat battery in one of the devices doesn't put the staffer out of action.
What do you think? Do you have your own wish list or perfect solution for the convergence of mobile phone and PDA? We'd like to hear about it. What features are must-haves? Where are vendors coming up short? Please send your ideas to edit@zdnet.com.au
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