What Lies Between

Things are hotting up in the space between the smartphone and the laptop. Google’s announcement of  Chrome OS for Netbooks, Symbian foundation previous statement that its OS can run on the Intel Atom chipset, Dell’s plans for a pocket sized Android device; these are just some of the evidence popping up on the radar. All this activity should also rejuvenate the forces that will create the next avatar of the mobile personal device.

 It is no surprise that everyone wants a piece of an expanding market, but what is exciting is that this trend has the potential to drive innovation in the fast growing “in-between” segment. This segment has seen innovation in the recent and not so recent past, but with mixed results. The Dell product is reportedly a pocket sized Mobile Internet Device that is slightly larger than the iPod Touch and doesn’t have cellphone capabilities. Sounds like a PDA,  do we need another? Internet centric devices have been around for some time but have either evolved into special purpose appliances (Internet Radio, Internet Phone) or gone the other extreme and tried to mimic the laptop.

 However, if one were to think of a PDA sized product that uses innovative input and display technologies, leverages developments in Cloud computing and availability of bandwidth, it does sound like a product worth carrying around. Worth carrying around, provided bandwidth, internet based services are available at reasonable cost – that will make it an idea whose time has come.

 The cellphone was conceived as a voice-centric product;  its physical form, hardware, software developed for this core functionality. The Personal Computer was conceived as a device to put computing power on the desks of individuals. It is time now for the space in between to be occupied by a mobile personal device, developed ground up, for todays internet.

 http://www.wirelessweek.com/article.aspx?id=170664

http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/23/android-symbian-limo-technology-wireless-android.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124630305634469553.html

http://www.wirelessweek.com/article.aspx?id=170574