Russell Beatie Thinks About Mobile Gadget Form Factors

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008358.html' target='_blank'>http://www.russellbeattie.com/noteb...ok/1008358.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"I'm trying to grok what a perfect mobile device would look like. Note that I didn't say "mobile phone." The way mobile phones are designed today (mostly flips) will stay the most popular and widespread for years to come. But what I'm trying to think about is that as we go forward in time and we have anywhere data access, and we start to use these devices in different ways (media, information retrieval, gaming, etc.), will there be a "combined" device which is capable of being all things to all people?"</i><br /><br />An interesting article by Russell Beatie. He's exceedingly biased against Microsoft, and <a href="http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008226.html">doesn't understand the difference between a Phone Edition device and a Smartphone</a>, but it's still an interesting read. ;-) What do you think the future of form factors holds? What would your perfect device be? Myself, since I don't talk on the phone that much but still need to have one with me, I'd like to be using a clamshell device designed for messaging - a QWERTY keyboard, a decent-sized screen, but something that's slender and not very big (the PDA2K is too big for me).

[Sven Johannsen]

Hmmm, He wants "nothing so complex like the Motorola MPX, which can convert transformer-like". But then he wants "a keyboard that you can swap out. One keyboard you add slides one way and is a full QWERTY mini-keyboard (like a HipTop). The other slides the other way and is a normal phone keypad (like the Nokia 7650 or the new Samsungs). " Seems to me the MPX covers that fairly well without having to swap out keyboards.

Problem is that there really is an optimal form factor for different applications. If you conbine the applications, the form factor is going to be a compromise.

[MS Mobiles]

doesn't understand the difference between a Phone Edition device and a Smartphone
... What would your perfect device be?

Russel doesn't understand many things - he never worked in mobile phone industry as I did. And yes, he is very anti-Microsoft, so much that he once refused participation in Mobius and published (without permission!!!) e-mail from Mobius organizers...

Shortly speaking: you are right, Jason: "What would your perfect device be?" is the right question because everybody has his/her own preferences. Question of Russell "what a perfect mobile device would look like"? - is simply wrong question to answer that is individual for each person. It is like asking "what is perfect shoe size?".

BTW: my perfect device is HTC Universal and I am just considering where to buy it from: Vodafone (most probable) or T-Mobile... but I have no doubts that this will be my next primary phone.

[Bob S]

I thinks this works for me

http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&amp;t=news&amp;id=3074

:)