Thoughts on Convergence

A number of industry commentators have been saying for a while now that the standalone Pocket PC is a dead concept and that convergence is the next best thing since sliced bread.

Respectfully, I disagree.

Or to clarify, I disagree in the short to medium term.

My wife and I were discussing last night why she couldn't just have a device that did everything her pocket pc does as well as everything her MP3 player does, in the end it came down to this:

She likes the operating system and large color screen on the pocket pc for reading emails, tracking expenses, managing appointments etc, but likes the simple intuitive interface, large storage capacity, long battery life, and small size of the MP3 player.

A device that combined the two of those functions would be much worse than each one individually: too large and heavy to wear and listen to music at the gym or too small a screen for pocket pc use.

Now for true convergence you would also want to include all the functions of a digital camera, portable video player, and cell phone. Each of those functions requires memory, storage, a different ideal screen, dedicated hardware, battery usage etc. Put them all together and you end up with a brick the size of an early 80's cell phone.

For a true converged device I feel you would need the following:

• 50-100gb storage capacity, ideally in a 0.85 inch or smaller hard drive, or possibly fast non-volitile flash
• a "dual layer" operating system and switchable speed processor: powerful and fast for PDA functions, simple interface and low power consumption for other functions
• A basic 2.2" VGA color screen for low power functions, and a larger (fold out,removable or projected) 5+" 800x600 or 1024x768 pixel screen for PDA functions, watching movies, viewing photos
• Optical zoom digital camera sensor of at least 5 megapixels
• Battery life of 5+ hrs high power functions or 24hrs low functions
• A form factor, dimensions and weight comparable to an iPod mini or flip cell phone

Now some of these are starting to come along individually, such as 0.85 inch hard drives (of 1 or 2 gb capacity), 8gb 20mbps CompactFlash card, 2.2" VGA screens etc, but it will still be a while before they can be all put together as a true usable converged device.

Until we can create such a package any converged device will be less than the sum of its individual functions, and until that day I will continue to carry a VGA pocket pc, a 5 megapixel camera, an iPod mini, and a cell phone.