MikeUnwired
11-21-2002, 10:15 AM
I've been pursuing the wireless dream for many years. I began with pagers in the early 1980's as a Mortgage Banker. When I became mobilly teathered, only Doctors, drug dealers and salesmen used pagers. The pager was a nice tool for being summoned to call-back someone, but they were far from dreamy.
As the 80's closed, cell phones became somewhat affordable -- $600+ for the equipment was the base. Airtime was easily costing me $300 to $500 a month -- but I could now be reached by voice while in the car. The ROI was there, but just barely, in a business where I did multi-million dollars in sales monthly.
After a round of hard-wired auto based cellular, carry-along bags and smaller units began to enter the picture. They allowed me to be reached by voice in many places -- but definitely not all. You see, the James Earl Jones promise that the "Call must go through". was definitely not reality then -- and still isn't today. So, I had a mobile cellular phone and a pager to deal with on a daily basis in order to be connected.
During the late 80's and early 90's, cell phones got smaller, text messaging tools got more robust and email began to get popular within offices.
As email grew and people became connected between sites and not just cubicles, three communications mediums began to merge on devices -- paging (text messaging), email (again, text mesaaging to some extent) and voice. Voice mail became a staple with outbound text message notification. The Internet began to become a reference tool for some and a communications medium to a few.
As the Internet grew in it's utility and became a communications tool unto itself, the dilemas of bandwidth, screen size and connection speed raised their ugly heads. Where the mainstream mobile communications tool now supported simple text and provided reasonable voice communications, adding a graphically rich medium like the Internet posed a new problem to technology in producing reasonably sized and priced converged equipment.
So, pagers got turned off and thrown away, cell phones shrank and grew in funtionality.
The biggest problem in the converged technology tools that have evolved is the balance between speed, power and size.
Speed as in how fast can I get the information I want and send the information I have.
Power as in how robust a communication, reference and / or resource can I take mobile or access mobilly?
Size as in do I want to experince mu communications on the screen the size of my thumbnail a widescreen plasma display or somewhere in between?
To balance these three areas of concern, users have had to juggle equipment and connections. It has been a frustrating process. But, has the convergence matured to where it meets the reasonable expectations of the mainstream mobile person?
I think it's possible that it has.
My wireless PDA experince started with the Palm VIIx. Web Clipping, while much maligned in many circles is a pretty sweet idea -- take text and transfer it with it's lower bandwidth and spped requirements, while storing the graphical interface locally on the unit. The VIIx is still a nice unit, although the monochromatic green on green screen is less than optimal for many more robust situations. It lets the user down in comparison to their desktop computer's color screen in both size and astetics.
The Blackberry essentially produces the same experience as the Palm VIIx, with the twist of the thumb board and some additional email functionality. It is woefully inadequate in Internet access.
Both the initial Palm VII's and Blackberries left the user to carry a separate voice communications tool -- equiping the mobile user with what began to look like Batman's utility belt as their daily work uniform.
People began to crave solutions that connected their communications tools together AND provided a more desktop-like experience. The Palm i705 added a small upgrade to the wireless text / Internet tool, but still missed the mark with it's monochrome screen. Blackberry, while more functional and voice converged than before is still monochromatic as well.
Handspring's Visors with phone Springboards produced a converged device with a decent screen size, robust program functionality extending beyond that of dedicated phones and pagers and provided the user with some core functions of the laptops they had shlepped around for years. The Prism was the pinnicle device in this itteration.
As Nokia and Ericsson packed more into less and upgraded to color displays, the utility of the screen size seemed to miss the feature list -- except for the Nokia Communicator.
Kyocera converged a Palm and phone into their Smartphones -- good tools what made sense as communications tools, served barely as data management tools and caused the users to walk with a limp due to size and weight.
Handspring again rallied and introduced the Treo Communicators -- again, missing the mark in screen size and initially debuting non-color units. They also missed the mark on expandability -- making their units more and more necessary to their users as they weaned away from their cubicles and spent more time away from the desk.
I've had the pleasure of trying Bluetooth -- frustrating to me in most cases and usless if the connected equipment doesn't have what it needs to get me connected to the outside world.
WiFi is absolutely fantasic -- I love it, but, it's so limited in area as to be useless in all but on-site mobility.
Microsoft has empowered the convergence in PDA's and phones to a level that produces a reasonable device for most communications needs with a reasonable data management system. The biggest feature of this new Pocket PC Phone is that the screen is big enough to actually replicate a desktop computer experience -- to a decent degree -- while still being small enough to carry along without needing a hand truck.
Think about it. Walk into Circuit City or Best Buy. People dream of big screen TV experiences. Set a group of monitors on a conference table in an office and announce that everyone can choose the one they like best. The biggest screens will always be chosen over the samller screens -- unless they actually have to carry them back to their desks. People want the biggest screen possible on their computer tools.
I believe that the Pocket PC Phone meets the converged wireless dreams of a good number of users in an affordable package. It provides the proper speed -- GPRS data access, reasonable processing speed for data reference and creation. It provides the proper power -- enabiling voice, text, email and Internet communications almost as well as you can experience at your desk. It also provides the user a reasonably sized tool to carry along. It's much larger than say the Sony-Ericsson T68i, but the utility of the componets that cause that size variance are acceptable to most users. The bottom line is that the screen is big enough to enjoy -- not just tolerate. Text entry is flexible -- handwriting full alphabet add-on keyboards instead of the 12 key phone keyboard. Finally, the experince is close enough to the desktop computer to be comfortable to users other than early adopters. The only missing link in this iteration of the PPC Phone is lack of 802.11 connectivity when available. That will be solved with 802.11 SD cards, but it isn't there today. I'd also like to have a wireless headset option and wiress phone keypad (like the size of my car's wireless lock dongle) to use with the unit.
The weak link in all of this is the same as the weak link 10 years ago -- lack of reliable service. Until the wireless service providers can blanket areas with reliable service signals, hardware and software capability will take a backseat and remain unadopted.
I live 20 miles from Washington DC -- near the Chesapeake Bay. We aren't in the mountains or significantly rural. There are millions of people living here. And yet, my biggest mobile problem is signal.
People want to have their in-office experiences extend out to the field. In Mobilize Yourself, the author defines mobility as "Being productive away from your desk." If my desk only got calls 60% of the times they were routed to me, or if I could only get a line out 70% of the time, I would be on the phone getting a new phone vendor, additional lines and creating work orders for line checks. When I call AT&T to tell them that my neighborhood of 180 $300,000 Plus homes can't get a phone signal, they shrug their virtual shoulders and tell me when they get "ehough" complaints, they might add a tower site. When I drive 5 miles from my home to the state capital city and can't get a signal for 3 miles of that trip -- there's a problem.
So, the hardware is there to a larger degree than ever before. But, when will the calls always go through?
As the 80's closed, cell phones became somewhat affordable -- $600+ for the equipment was the base. Airtime was easily costing me $300 to $500 a month -- but I could now be reached by voice while in the car. The ROI was there, but just barely, in a business where I did multi-million dollars in sales monthly.
After a round of hard-wired auto based cellular, carry-along bags and smaller units began to enter the picture. They allowed me to be reached by voice in many places -- but definitely not all. You see, the James Earl Jones promise that the "Call must go through". was definitely not reality then -- and still isn't today. So, I had a mobile cellular phone and a pager to deal with on a daily basis in order to be connected.
During the late 80's and early 90's, cell phones got smaller, text messaging tools got more robust and email began to get popular within offices.
As email grew and people became connected between sites and not just cubicles, three communications mediums began to merge on devices -- paging (text messaging), email (again, text mesaaging to some extent) and voice. Voice mail became a staple with outbound text message notification. The Internet began to become a reference tool for some and a communications medium to a few.
As the Internet grew in it's utility and became a communications tool unto itself, the dilemas of bandwidth, screen size and connection speed raised their ugly heads. Where the mainstream mobile communications tool now supported simple text and provided reasonable voice communications, adding a graphically rich medium like the Internet posed a new problem to technology in producing reasonably sized and priced converged equipment.
So, pagers got turned off and thrown away, cell phones shrank and grew in funtionality.
The biggest problem in the converged technology tools that have evolved is the balance between speed, power and size.
Speed as in how fast can I get the information I want and send the information I have.
Power as in how robust a communication, reference and / or resource can I take mobile or access mobilly?
Size as in do I want to experince mu communications on the screen the size of my thumbnail a widescreen plasma display or somewhere in between?
To balance these three areas of concern, users have had to juggle equipment and connections. It has been a frustrating process. But, has the convergence matured to where it meets the reasonable expectations of the mainstream mobile person?
I think it's possible that it has.
My wireless PDA experince started with the Palm VIIx. Web Clipping, while much maligned in many circles is a pretty sweet idea -- take text and transfer it with it's lower bandwidth and spped requirements, while storing the graphical interface locally on the unit. The VIIx is still a nice unit, although the monochromatic green on green screen is less than optimal for many more robust situations. It lets the user down in comparison to their desktop computer's color screen in both size and astetics.
The Blackberry essentially produces the same experience as the Palm VIIx, with the twist of the thumb board and some additional email functionality. It is woefully inadequate in Internet access.
Both the initial Palm VII's and Blackberries left the user to carry a separate voice communications tool -- equiping the mobile user with what began to look like Batman's utility belt as their daily work uniform.
People began to crave solutions that connected their communications tools together AND provided a more desktop-like experience. The Palm i705 added a small upgrade to the wireless text / Internet tool, but still missed the mark with it's monochrome screen. Blackberry, while more functional and voice converged than before is still monochromatic as well.
Handspring's Visors with phone Springboards produced a converged device with a decent screen size, robust program functionality extending beyond that of dedicated phones and pagers and provided the user with some core functions of the laptops they had shlepped around for years. The Prism was the pinnicle device in this itteration.
As Nokia and Ericsson packed more into less and upgraded to color displays, the utility of the screen size seemed to miss the feature list -- except for the Nokia Communicator.
Kyocera converged a Palm and phone into their Smartphones -- good tools what made sense as communications tools, served barely as data management tools and caused the users to walk with a limp due to size and weight.
Handspring again rallied and introduced the Treo Communicators -- again, missing the mark in screen size and initially debuting non-color units. They also missed the mark on expandability -- making their units more and more necessary to their users as they weaned away from their cubicles and spent more time away from the desk.
I've had the pleasure of trying Bluetooth -- frustrating to me in most cases and usless if the connected equipment doesn't have what it needs to get me connected to the outside world.
WiFi is absolutely fantasic -- I love it, but, it's so limited in area as to be useless in all but on-site mobility.
Microsoft has empowered the convergence in PDA's and phones to a level that produces a reasonable device for most communications needs with a reasonable data management system. The biggest feature of this new Pocket PC Phone is that the screen is big enough to actually replicate a desktop computer experience -- to a decent degree -- while still being small enough to carry along without needing a hand truck.
Think about it. Walk into Circuit City or Best Buy. People dream of big screen TV experiences. Set a group of monitors on a conference table in an office and announce that everyone can choose the one they like best. The biggest screens will always be chosen over the samller screens -- unless they actually have to carry them back to their desks. People want the biggest screen possible on their computer tools.
I believe that the Pocket PC Phone meets the converged wireless dreams of a good number of users in an affordable package. It provides the proper speed -- GPRS data access, reasonable processing speed for data reference and creation. It provides the proper power -- enabiling voice, text, email and Internet communications almost as well as you can experience at your desk. It also provides the user a reasonably sized tool to carry along. It's much larger than say the Sony-Ericsson T68i, but the utility of the componets that cause that size variance are acceptable to most users. The bottom line is that the screen is big enough to enjoy -- not just tolerate. Text entry is flexible -- handwriting full alphabet add-on keyboards instead of the 12 key phone keyboard. Finally, the experince is close enough to the desktop computer to be comfortable to users other than early adopters. The only missing link in this iteration of the PPC Phone is lack of 802.11 connectivity when available. That will be solved with 802.11 SD cards, but it isn't there today. I'd also like to have a wireless headset option and wiress phone keypad (like the size of my car's wireless lock dongle) to use with the unit.
The weak link in all of this is the same as the weak link 10 years ago -- lack of reliable service. Until the wireless service providers can blanket areas with reliable service signals, hardware and software capability will take a backseat and remain unadopted.
I live 20 miles from Washington DC -- near the Chesapeake Bay. We aren't in the mountains or significantly rural. There are millions of people living here. And yet, my biggest mobile problem is signal.
People want to have their in-office experiences extend out to the field. In Mobilize Yourself, the author defines mobility as "Being productive away from your desk." If my desk only got calls 60% of the times they were routed to me, or if I could only get a line out 70% of the time, I would be on the phone getting a new phone vendor, additional lines and creating work orders for line checks. When I call AT&T to tell them that my neighborhood of 180 $300,000 Plus homes can't get a phone signal, they shrug their virtual shoulders and tell me when they get "ehough" complaints, they might add a tower site. When I drive 5 miles from my home to the state capital city and can't get a signal for 3 miles of that trip -- there's a problem.
So, the hardware is there to a larger degree than ever before. But, when will the calls always go through?