You no doubt know Apple announced its iPhone yesterday. It’s a phone, an iPod, and a web browser.
You certainly don’t know about a conversation I had with a young relative on the subject a few weeks ago.
The gist of the conversation was that I assumed that no one is his/her right mind would carry around both a phone and a listening device if there was a device that could decently do both, and she couldn’t see why anyone in his/her right mind would want just one device.
Well, OK, which one of us is crazy? What’s better, one, two or three?
Mind you, I’m not asking in a sneaky way, “Are you going to buy an iPhone?” Rather, I’m asking “Down the road, when these things become more capable and somewhat cheaper, would you prefer an all-in-one to separate devices?”
On the one hand, an all-in-one gives you one (probably somewhat bigger) lump to carry around rather than two or three. An all-in-one will probably cost less than the total cost of two or three separates.
On the other hand, an all-in-one will probably not be as capable as separates, and likely will be somewhat harder to use. Many people already carry two lumps around anyway without great angst, maybe this is a solution in search of a problem.
On the left foot (much easier to kick reason out the window with that), none of this will matter and an all-in-one will be accepted or rejected on its coolness/uncoolness at the time of purchase.
This isn’t a strict poll, but what do you think you’d prefer, and why?
Why ask? Well, the iPhone is arguably the first manifestation of the PC/phone etc., and while it will look laughably lightweight a couple years from now, an underlying assumption behind the PCphone is that most people really don’t need close to a PC around when they’re walking around.
Well, what do you think? The address is below.
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