Ideas & Opinions
Just where is mobile computing headed?
By Mike on 28 October 2008
GLOBAL – Nseries handsets have often been referred to by Nokia as multimedia computers, but we all know there still remains a line (though fading fast) between smartphones and portable connected computers, or netbooks, or whatever you want to call them. Is it now a question of when that line will disappear, or can it ever really vanish? In reality do we even need device clarity and categorisation?
Speaking at the Symbian Smartphone Show last week, executive vice president of devices at Nokia, Kai Oistamo, scrapped his presentation’s original title, “The future of smart phones”, and spoke instead on “The future of computers”. Irrelevant? Not at all. As Oistamo said, “it is time to recognize that what we have in our hands today are not smart phones but full-fledged computers.” Erasers at the ready!
“This is the hot spot for innovation and Nokia has been the pioneer of creating these kinds of devices… We’re at the heart of the Internet revolution… These things are computers, and on computers it is about the wealth of applications.”
As smartphones become ever more powerful, capable of playing or even streaming video from a remote location, rendering 3D stunning graphics for games, taking brilliantly detailed photographs, shooting home movies, connecting over-the-air to the Internet at broadband speeds, and touchscreen technology matures, the cobwebbed buzzword ‘convergence’ feels slightly irrelevant as this is no longer what many expect… they demand it. Does it all come crashing back to Earth with the size of your pocket, and is that where we draw the line? I’m not sure it’s as simple as that anymore, although many would argue that simple physical constraint could be the lowest common denominator when thinking about smartphones and mobile computing. What do you think?
Do we need to draw lines in the sand between mobile devices and portable computers? Should Nokia step across that line and into new realms? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Photo from anikarenina
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- Where netbooks and mobile phones collide
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Tags | conversations, kai oistamo, Nokia, nseries, symbian smartphone show
October 28th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
It’s okay to recognise that the mobile devices are getting smarter and could actually handle a lot of the stuff we still feel we need a “real computer” for. But no matter what the devices are called, they still look like mobile phones. The way we use them remains the same.
The devices are still heavily branded as music devices, multimedia devices, email devices etc. For an actual step across the line, I feel new devices should have all these qualities integrated nicely. Being able to easily use the tools and applications we want in our mobile devices is the real value here.
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October 28th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I think yes, the mobile phones should move towards the mobile computers. The line in the sand would stay the same: the smaller screen size and a specific input methods that would influence the way, mobile devices interact with people.
Kind regards,
Konstantine
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October 28th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
No one woulld want to use a portable computer if he could do the same thing as effeciently on his mobile phone. ‘Mobility’ is the way to go!
All that matters is the OS and the underlying hardware. Improve the already good ones
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October 28th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Semantics (branding) is a powerful thing. Once established, it is a bear to have the mind change on something so… personal.
Its ok if Nokia wants to further its ideal that smartphones/mobiles are computers. For all that Nokia puts into their devices, this is indeed the case. It is also indeed the furstration of when you do change the semantics of an object, the expectations of that object then have to change with it. One cannot call it a multimedia computer, but then call a broken-feature an aspect of this being a phone. Product philosophy and execution have to meet at the same place for a paradigm shift to be realized.
Else all you end up with is a muttering fo definitions and a company that looks like it lied in trying to be first. Not sure that Nokia needs that kind of attention.
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