The End of Single-Purpose Devices
Ahh, I love my modern digital lifestyle, especially when it comes to being out, whether traveling or just moving around the city. It's great that I can walk around with a music collection that dwarfs my old college record collection, that I can have several books in my pocket ready to read whenever I want and that I can snap a picture or video of anything I see. So what am I doing? Am I walking around with an MP3 player, an e-book reader, a digital camera and a digital camcorder? Nope, just one device, my BlackBerry smartphone, which lets me listen to music, read books, take pictures and video, and, oh, yeah, make calls, play games, manage contacts and so on. I do own a nice MP3 player, a very good digital point-and-shoot camera and a Flip camcorder, and, while I don't own an e-book reader, I've had the chance to try out several. But I find that I'm leaving these devices at home more and more and just sticking with one multifunction device. All of these single-purpose devices are excellent and in pretty much every case they are superior to the functionality in my smartphone. But it's also true that in most cases my smartphone is good enough. Sure, it's not an iPod, but I can carry about 20 hours of music on it and it works fine. With the e-book reading software I added, the phone doesn't hold a candle to a Kindle but I've still managed to read over 20 books on it, including "Moby Dick" and "Great Expectations" (sure, I had to click "next page" about 10,000 times, but that was OK). So while single-purpose devices will generally win on quality, they have a hard time competing in cost and convenience. And in most cases, the desire to not have to buy another gadget and definitely not have to carry around another gadget will lead people to choose a multifunction device that they already have over buying a new single-purpose device. And in many cases this will lead to the ultimate demise of these single-purpose devices or, at best, a limited existence for them as high-quality niche products. Don't believe me? Just look at history. Remember how big personal organizers like the Palm Pilot were? For a very short time they were a must-have gadget for many business users. Now their functions are basic functionality for even simple smartphones. You can also see the same thing happening with MP3 players. It wasn't that long ago that little white earbuds were everywhere. Now, you're just as likely to see people listening to music on their phones. Even Apple has recognized this. In many ways the company has been de-emphasizing the importance of iPods (When was the last time an iPod announcement was big?) and, as my colleague Nick Kolakowski has pointed out, Apple has been moving its iPod line away from single-purpose music players to focusing more on multifunction entertainment devices. I think that e-book readers will have an even shorter lifespan as big-ticket items and will fairly quickly become niche devices, as they have even more negatives than the MP3 players. Yes, reading a book on a device like a Kindle is a pleasant experience. But there are more than a few limitations. As I already mentioned, there are the price and the size of the device (which aren't insignificant). But many dedicated e-book readers are also closed ecosystems, in which it can be hard to use books from other sources. Conversely, most of the smartphone-based reader applications I've used made it very easy to import anything, from old public domain books downloaded from Project Gutenberg to personal PDFs. There will always be examples of single-purpose devices that survive and thrive, mainly because their functionality can't be easily incorporated into a multifunction device. And there will always be the need for high-quality devices; for example, while I expect simple point-and-shoot cameras to eventually go away, there will always be a market for high-end, professional-quality digital cameras. But in many other cases, these single-purpose devices are destined to become just another feature of a device that can do many things. And while these multifunction devices may just do these things to a "good enough" standard, for many people, good enough is all they need. |
Comments (10)
Totally agree. I have read many ebooks on my phone (non-touchscreen Windows Mobile device), and while it did take a lot of clicks to scroll through the whole thing I was amazed how nice the experience was. Project Gutenberg is amazing :)
Posted by Matthew | November 10, 2009 7:30 PM
Indeed. And let's not forget the GPS antenna. I've replaced my Garmin Forerunner 205 (the battery finally died) with the RunKeeper app on my iPhone. It's not as good as a true Garmin device, but it's good enough. So now, when I'm running, I carry only my iPhone: GPS speed/distance tracking, tunes/podcasts to listen to, and telephone in case of emergency. Very nice.
Posted by David Prinzing | November 10, 2009 8:13 PM
Much of what's discussed in the article is easily handled by a computer, in this case a PDA version of one.
We still haven't seen the single-purposed device fall in popularity in the printer world, with multi-purpose fax-printer-copier machines doing better but still not as good as those single-purposed devices.
Perhaps a symptom of software versus hardware requirements.
Posted by Wilson | November 11, 2009 9:17 AM
Well put Jim. I started my device-carrying career with the first version of the Palm and swore that I would never succumb to a single device -- convergence was the devil. My how my opinion has changed!
I now run a company that makes software to extend IT to these smartphones and firmly believe that the next generation of these devices will begin the decline of the laptop!
The more you can do to integrate life and work into a smartphone, the more likely the concept of 1 device sticks. If I can listen to a book, check Salesforce.com, review Google Analytics, restart a failed VM and close out an open incident report from my device we've entered a whole new world!
Posted by Rob Woodbridge | November 11, 2009 10:07 PM
The future is multiple devices working together.
Posted by Luis Daniel Soto Maldonado | November 11, 2009 11:22 PM
SMARTPHONES MUST DIE!!!
Actually I love the "Smart" in smartphone, i.e. "PDA". What I hate is the monopolistic corporate greed of the phone company. I saw an article on the true cost of a smartphone. With a 2 year agreement to get a Pre, iPhone or Android with unlimited services it max out to over $4,700.00! Almost $5000 to replace my palm! I don't think so.
Posted by STEVEN | November 18, 2009 3:44 PM
Steven's point is a good one and where formerly single purpose devices were of relatively high cost and low functionality (e.g. the dedicated Word Processor, or the Palm Pilot), you were not faced with another $1200 a year or more (usually a LOT more) worth of charges. While the functionality may be "good enough" for some people, add the cost and it's a raw deal. A very generous unlimited international calling plan however with voice and data still runs as much as $150-$250/month, and a basic one still about $100/month. Worse, most have a "de facto" 5 GB data transfer "limit" when tethering so their use as adjunct mobile access point is limited. Greed is a good term for it. Then try to add a second one to your plan - unlike the group phone plans, the second device carries another full charge for data per month! It's not hard at all to have a family plan with a few smartphones and pay over $200/month.
Posted by Steve | November 21, 2009 11:06 AM
This article is shortsited as some dedicated devices will survive. Smartphones may be the future of a certain younger generation but it is not the solution for all. Certain functionalities may be combined such as music & photos for example but the key for long term survival is simplicity and when too many functions exist on the same device complexity sets in. A lot of middle-age people much prefer the simplicity of an Mp3 player or Ipod rather than the complexity of an Iphone or Blackberry which is unfeasible for a lot of people. A phone is still a phone and is not a camera! Certain devices will certainly disappear as technology evolves but other specialty devices will continue to evolve and to thrive. Most people will NOT read a book on any electronic device and stick to paper.
Posted by Richard | November 21, 2009 11:38 AM
I agree in general -- we can already see how MP3 players and point and shoot cameras fit nicely into the cellphone form factor, but the form factor's the thing: e-readers and (to a lesser extent) gameboys have unique user interface requirements that don't(won't) fit well into a cell phone housing. I, for one, want to read on a largish display device (in keeping with full disclosure here, I've just bought a Kindle DX). I have always found the game playing experience on my cellphones to be not so great ( I would be the first to admit however, that the Iphone might change portable game playing). There is a distinction to be made around: what we carry with us, and what remains in the office or at home. Books (and paper in general) have been superb technologies: portable, high resolution, easy on the eyes -- it's been around for thousands of years -- we've got a ways to go before we put them finally to bed. E-readers need to be largish which reduces their portability, but a Kindle DX is a heck of a lot better than a backpack full of textbooks or a desktop submerged in piles of paper :-). The ultimate multifunctional display device still awaits the ability to paint images directly on the retina :-).
Posted by Ed Boyhan | November 21, 2009 11:57 AM
I agree with the Steves. I resent having to shell out hundreds a year to the wireless oligopoly just to maintain the PDA functionality (including MP3s, photos, eBooks, etc.) that my trusty Palm Tungsten handled for many years. But the seven-year-old battery finally stopped being able to hold a charge. The most annoying thing about Palm -- aside from their total lack of customer support -- is that they ignored what was at one time a promising multitasking OS for their standalone Palm devices to death, betting the house on webOS. Now if Apple actually does come out with a Wi-Fi smallish tablet which doesn’t require a wireless data plan...
Posted by Stratocaster | November 21, 2009 6:38 PM