Six technologies endangered by smartphones

[J. Strnad]

Regarding the article: In the interest of being family-friendly, I'll say, "Nonsense."

You can drink coffee out of your hat and, for that matter, wear a coffee cup on your head, but I'll keep my specialized devices, thank you.

[Kumabjorn]

When phones comes with fold-out screens I can see them becoming a Jack-of-all-trades but it will most likely take another ten years. In the mean time I will thoroughly enjoy my Kindle.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by carld

The only technology phones really endanger is alarm clocks. They'll have some limited impact on other devices, but they're just not good enough to overtake other specialty electronics.

My cell phone has an alarm but I don't like to use it because of the battery drain; I would have to recharge it every day or two (it's fine as a backup for the rare times I forget or lose my travel alarm or the travel alarm dies, also rare). My dedicated alarm at home uses a couple of AA cells that last at least a year. My travel alarm takes up less room than a cell phone and its battery lasts at least a year. I have noticed travel alarms are becoming harder to find.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by oggelbe2007

Take the iPad as an example it doesn't perform any of its promised functions very well due to the many design trade-offs.

Have you actually used one? The iPad does many things very, very well indeed.

[bjones6416]

I agree that none of those will likely be replaced by smartphones, but...

For my picture-taking needs, my LG Dare works just fine. My camera is gathering dust at home, but I take pictures pretty much every day with my phone, and they are good enough for sending to friends or posting to the web.

I use VZ Navigator on my phone as my GPS, and fairly often, too. It stays updated, and it's a part of my plan anyway so I take full advantage of it.

Not giving up my e-book readers, though. I keep one of those with me always.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Viseguy

Or so we're told by this piece in Yahoo! Finance.

According to the article, the six endangered technologies are: digital cameras, video game consoles, iPad/tablet PCs, netbooks, GPS, and -- yup, you guessed it -- e-book readers.

I think it does affect consumers who are "casual" users of those types of devices, or those who have considered buying them, not as a necessary purchase but as an impulse buy. Obviously no one with a real interest in photography would get by with only a cell phone camera, and diehard gamers aren't interested in casual gaming that cell phones offer.

But for those who just take a few photos? Why would they buy a point and shoot when their cell phone does the job, and uploads it to their Facebook/flickr account immediately?

Convergent devices don't necessarily kill of dedicated devices...but they definitely impact the market from a manufacturer's standpoint.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

Regarding the article: In the interest of being family-friendly, I'll say, "Nonsense."

You can drink coffee out of your hat and, for that matter, wear a coffee cup on your head, but I'll keep my specialized devices, thank you.

I was just about to post "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." The thought of having email on my reader is horrendous. I have enough things splitting my attention - even on my ipod, should I listen to music, watch a movie, listen to a lecture? On my computer, should I check email, shop, read the newspaper or play solitare? I love my single device kindle. There is a definite sense of relaxation when I open it up in bed. I can use it to fall asleep, just like I did with regular books. The computer definately didn't work for that.

But I am a different generation (I'm in my early 50s). My teenage daughter watches TV on a netbook. She has put a camera on her Xmas list
(yes, already, because she knows I shop early. Already have 2 small presents, and intend to be done by October 15), but she has a smartphone (don't all 12-year olds need them?) and maybe she should use that. I don't understand why someone would want everything on one device - how do you choose what you are going to do? The concept of unlimited choices just freezes me. Right now, I have a choice of doing several work things or reading MobileRead. Obviously, I still haven't learned to make good choices - I need my choices limited, for my own good.

[Ben Thornton]

One problem that I often have with smartphones is that when people phone me, I can't look at it (because I'm holding it to my ear). "Can you make Friday?" "Er, hang on a minute" fumble fumble - drops call. So, I like the idea of a separate PDA and phone.

[petermillard]

Sounds like you need a decent smartphone Ben

[GeoffC]

mmmmm

multi-function device .... whoops I dropped it;

there goes my phone/reader/browser/GPS/diary/video player /mp3 player.....



Now what am I going to do .....

At least with dedicated units there is always a 'fall-back' ....

[Ben Thornton]

Originally Posted by petermillard

Sounds like you need a decent smartphone Ben

How do you manage it? I don't like those in-ear thingies, and I can't hear people while I'm looking at the screen. I've got quite a fancy smartphone, but I'm not impressed with it as a practical phone, which is a disappointment.

[Hellmark]

I very very sincerely disagree with several of the points.
When it comes to digital cameras, yes, at some levels. Point and shoots, etc I can see being phased out. SLRs, etc will stay around.

Video game consoles, hahahah, yeah right. MS, Sony, and Nintendo have too much of a stranglehold on the market. When it comes to handheld gaming, that is a slightly different story. While other companies, like Nokia, have failed miserably with bringing more traditional video games to cell phones, Android and iPhone have made some headway. I don't seeing handhelds dying out any time soon though. Graphics are a big deal for games, and cellphones simply cannot keep up with dedicated gaming devices, without sacrificing quality in some other area (like battery life). Plus it is much easier from a developer standpoint to create for one set of hardware, compared to a elastic range (such as on phones). That is why PC games tend to be buggier than their console counterparts.

Tablets/Netbooks, not really. Some things are just more difficult on a small device.

GPSs I will have to agree on. We've already seen a drop in sales on those, since cellphones do just as good of a job, and most automatically update their maps. One less thing to carry with no drop in quality.

[petermillard]

Originally Posted by Ben Thornton

How do you manage it?

On a call, take phone away from ear, touch 'speaker', hit 'home' button, select 'calendar' and continue conversation whilst making appt. That took about three times as long to write as it does to do it in real life.

Simples

Pete

[charleski]

Sales of digital cameras (with much of that proper SLRs) were up 33% in the first quarter of this year (and that's in a mature market which made the transition to digital 5 years ago). Every so-often another hack can't think of anything sensible to write and trots out the tired old convergence myth to fill a few more column inches.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

I very very sincerely disagree with several of the points.
When it comes to digital cameras, yes, at some levels. Point and shoots, etc I can see being phased out. SLRs, etc will stay around.

I think that perhaps the low end point and shoot market, or the very compact point and shoot market will be impacted. However, optical physics are pretty much immutable. If you want image stabilization, a decent optical zoom and excellent optical quality you will probably always need a camera at least an inch or so thick.

Video game consoles, hahahah, yeah right. MS, Sony, and Nintendo have too much of a stranglehold on the market. When it comes to handheld gaming, that is a slightly different story. While other companies, like Nokia, have failed miserably with bringing more traditional video games to cell phones, Android and iPhone have made some headway. I don't seeing handhelds dying out any time soon though. Graphics are a big deal for games, and cellphones simply cannot keep up with dedicated gaming devices, without sacrificing quality in some other area (like battery life). Plus it is much easier from a developer standpoint to create for one set of hardware, compared to a elastic range (such as on phones). That is why PC games tend to be buggier than their console counterparts.

Tablets/Netbooks, not really. Some things are just more difficult on a small device.

GPSs I will have to agree on. We've already seen a drop in sales on those, since cellphones do just as good of a job, and most automatically update their maps. One less thing to carry with no drop in quality.

My feature phone's GPS does a better job than my wife's GPS.


--
Bill