Some major players are now entering the mobile device market. I think what we are seeing is the start of a change in which such mobile devices will very much become the norm. This change will offer considerable opportunities for learning and teaching, but will also become a significant challenge to our existing infrastructures and processes. In my recent post Filling up experiences at the online filling station (continued) I mentioned the new PalmOne Lifedrive which like the Dell Axim has a relatively large display for a PDA, but also has a 4GB hard drive (a la iPod).
In previous articles on this theme I also drew attention to the Microsoft concept model the Ultra Mobile tablet PC 2007 a memory only device which could exploit Microsoft's 64-bit version of their ubiquitous operating system. However, far from leading the curve, Microsoft could be trailing it.
Now Nokia (yes they of mobile phone fame) have entered the fray with their new Nokia 770 Internet Tablet - a Linux handheld device with a 800×480 resolution display with wireless networking and media players etc etc
And lest we think that all this innovation is coming from the usual suspects take a look at some recent Indian innovation. India's Encore Software has developed the Mobilis devices. The Linux based Mobilis has solid-state memory (so no hard disc) and an integral 7.4 inch LCD display (VGA resolution). A combined wireless networking and GPS option is also available. Encore claims that the Mobilis has been designed for use by India's rural populations. The Encore site is a bit sparse so if you want a quick overview of this development I found the recent CNET news article Indian firm unveils low-cost Linux-based PCs (10 May 2005) quite informative.
The more I see, hear and read, desktop megaboxes are beginning to look distinctly like steam trains. Those looking for more portable computer solutions are going to be spoilt for choice. For example, if you are prepared to eschew Windows Wal Mart can now offer you a sub USD 500 laptop.
But before we get carried away on a wave of techno-enthusiasm at a level equivalent to an Apple computer evangelist gathering 🙂 I thought it might be useful to draw some comparisons with a blast from the past, i.e. the Network Computer concept first promulgated by Larry Ellison the CEO of Oracle way back in 1996-1997.
The CNET article Ellison ressurects network computer provides a useful overview of what was being proposed by Ellison for version 2 of his vision in 1999. Ellison's model was a 'thin client' or information appliance device which would have no hard disk but would receive output from applications situated, and depend upon storage, on a central server. At the time Microsoft responded to the Ellison vision by offering the market their version of the thin-client: the NetPC.
Of course part of this vision was that because applications would be running on a central server but only displayed via the network device that they could 'rented' and voila! a whole new business model would open up.
The Ellison/ Gates vision of the network computer/information appliance didn't happen way back then … but could it now? Of course those who hark back to the days of mainframe computers and dumb terminals where there was total central control may still want to embrace the earlier Ellison/Gates vision, i.e. kill the 'thick client' or desktop computer.
Like most things humans do, however, we tend to swing from one extreme to the other before finally (perhaps a long time later) realising we need to cherry pick the best bits from the alternative visions and dump the dysfunctional and over-restrictive aspects.
The personal computer revolution grew out of the end-users recognition that they now had some degree of control and so any attempt to force people back into walled gardens is ultimately doomed to failure. We, nevertheless, can see such attempts in the mobile phone arena where some modern mobiles are in effect quasi PDAs with multimedia capabilities. Want music or movies via your mobile phone? … Sure no problem … as long as you get them from us … The result? … How many mobile phones with MP3 player capability allow you to download the MP3s direct from a PC?
But let's get back to comparisons with the original vision of the Network Computer/NetPC with what is coming down the slipway now.
The emerging generation of information appliances/tools are capable of useful local processing and storage whilst still being able to connect to the internet for communication and refreshment of content on the local appliance. Add the growth of broadband and wireless networking to the mix and you could indeed implement much of the original EllisonGates vision. But that local processing and storage potential of the new devices is critical because they remove total reliance on a central server; this keeps central services as the servant not the master. What Ellison and Gates didn't take account of at the time was the ever smaller ever higher capacity hard discs and the increasing global capacity for producing memory chips; making solid-state memory devices with their apparent instant-start more available.
So there's some really powerful tools going to be at our disposal. At the moment the available offerings are still too expensive, but costs will fall.
The current generation of artefacts are no longer just gadgets for geeks, but are instead becoming useful tools. We've already got PDAs with usable displays that actually do some useful work, can connect to the internet, play a variety of rich media, and have either solid-state storage or, as the PalmOne Lifedrive example shows, have its own hard disc. We've also got ultra-portable laptops, e.g. the Fijitsu Siemens Lifebook or Sony equivalents, which can do much that the average office desktop can do. But as a recent convert to such devices I would say that the PDA has the edge in how often I carry it around with me. The Lifebook (not to be confused with the PalmOne Lifedrive) is a great laptop and it certainly beats carrying around some of the earlier generation of luggables but it's still ~1.5 Kg and it won't fit in a pocket. Of course the laptop can do a lot more than the PDA but the latter is small enough, light enough, and useful enough that I don't have to think twice about taking it with me, and that's the true test.
In parallel to PDA's we've also got iPod like devices that can store extensive music collections again either in solid-state memory or in minature hard discs. But this surely begs a question? Why not just invest in one converged device that does it all (a la the PalmOne Lifedrive)?
Now if I was an Apple seeing my iPod market getting squeezed by the Creative, Sony et al it might be tempting to apply our design and marketing expertise in this new information appliance market:) … now wouldn't that be interesting? … Oh wait, now I remember, didn't Apple discontinued their Apple Newton in 1998? … Pocket OS X anyone? 🙂
