RIM Chairman Jim Balsillie spoke recently at a breakfast that was attended by Palm Addict's Associate Writer Peter Wolchak.
Mr. Balsillie provided a very concise description of the tug of war that goes into every portable device design. "Asked what future BlackBerrys will look like, Balsillie said 'A lot of people tell us they want the device to be smaller.' He then paused and shrugged. 'But they also want a larger screen and a larger keyboard.' "
Similar conversations were occuring at last year's PalmSource Developers Conference in San Jose. I had the opportunity to visit with a product manager for PalmOne, and even among developers and techies he was often facing questions that in some way or other could boil down to the same issue of wanting devices to be bigger and smaller at the same time. Bigger screen and keyboard, but with a smaller case. More memory, brighter screen and small form factor, but a longer battery life. It's forever a tension of tradeoffs.
The good news? As the technology improves, the tradeoff curve gets better. Smaller more efficient radios in smartphones. Smaller more efficient batteries or fuel cells. Chip sets combined to reduce internal space for circuitry. More efficient and effective screens. In fact, I suspect that better designs for integrating keyboards will even show up over time.
So designs will get better as the technology allows. But the tradeoffs will never go away.
You can find Peter's original post at
PalmAddicts.