The Future For ‘Convergence’ In Contemporary Cell Phones
It is not that long ago that smallish electronic gadgets like cell phones, audio players, cameras, PDA’s and GPS systems were carried around routinely by their users as separate products. Nevertheless, over the last couple of years these items have been combined into cell phones, that now commonly provide a variety of functions in one small convenient item. This progression of a coming together of separate technologies is referred to as ‘convergence’.
Cell phone manufacturers realised that as their items became an important element of every day life, they wanted to seek out more and more ingenius techniques to stimulate users to frequently upgrade to the most recent model. Incorporating the extra functions was an simple approach to accomplish this and trigger people to purchase more of their goods.
Probably the most extreme example of convergence was when Apple released the iPhone, which brought just about every pocket digital device together into one convenient unit. No more would the traveller need a separate GPS route planner or a separate portable video games player or video player. The photographic quality also improved to the point that their pictures can now rival those of dedicated compact digital cameras. High definition video can be captured onto compact memory cards which supply huge storage capacity, rivalling that of the computer hard drives of only few years back. Following the mainstream adoption of the smart phone within the past few years lots of people now use their phone as a portable pc, routinely loading ‘Apps’ for an enormous range of purposes.
With some of the very newest gadgets like the Samsung Galaxy Notethey’re now seeking to bridge the gap between phones and compact tablet pcs by offering a fully featured hybrid that enables users to exchange both of these gadgets with just one. So it appears that the ‘golden age’ enjoyed by the mobile phone manufacturers in the age of miniaturisation is coming to an end. They may find it much more challenging in years to come to find ways to motivate owners to trade up every year or two to the newest ‘must have’ device.
Maybe they are going to have to work somewhat harder on 3D or holographic displays, or perhaps true voice recognition and artificial intelligence? I suspect though, that like the space race of the 60s and 70s, when all of us thought that by now we’d be living on the moon, our pocket gadgets are arriving at a final point of convergence where they’re as good as they are going to get!
David A Griffiths is a commercial technology advisor in the uk. Additionally managing several enterprises, with particular focus on making money on line and mentoring beginners to learn internet marketing.