Screen Size Trends
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Easily take mobile calls when listening to music. Gear4 has released a headphone set for the iPod that works as a hands-free kit for Bluetooth mobile phones.
LocationFree from Sony redirects TV shows from a home television to target devices such as the P990, so users can keep up with their favorite programs.
The second quarter was softer-than-expected in terms of handset shipments and prices, says ABI Research, and the fourth quarter will prove a bumper quarter for mobile operators and handset vendors. The market topped 245 million mobile devices shipped in the third quarter and the global mobile devices marketplace is on target to reach one billion handsets by the year’s end.
Russell Buckley has recently suggested that PDA’s will disappear in favour of smart phones and other commentators seem to be agreeing with that. This is the trend for handsets in Asia and Europe seems to be following the same pattern. Now Palm is confirming the trend with the launch of the Treo 700wx Smartphone. Timo Poropudas points out that 52 companies are now producing Windows Mobile devices. So is ‘Smaller Is Better’ the new trend?
One expert who would agree heartily is Graham Brown-Martin of Handheld Learning. In a talk he gave at the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival (EIEF06) this year, he stated that desktop computing will be dead by the end of the decade and laptops will be following shortly after.
Does this mean that the inevitable trend is smaller and smaller and we will all end up using our smart wrist watches to access the Internet? Jakob Nielsen would certainly not agree. He feels that productivity increases with screen size. Within the next 10 years, he expects monitors of, say, 5000×3000 to be in fairly common use, at least among high-end business professionals. Presumably this trend leads eventually to a smart wall in your workspace. The whole wall will be your screen. The keyboard and the mouse will be replaced by voice-controlled input devices.
Are we then looking at two trends in screen sizes? Mobile devices become smaller and smaller. Desktop devices become bigger and bigger. That might certainly be the conclusion if you apply only product-driven technology-based judgements. However different people have different needs and different preferences. What seems likely is that there are different and appreciable segments of the population who are strong adherents of each of the major alternatives, including PCs, PDAs, SmartPhones, CellPhones and even smart wristwatches. Combinations of two or more of these will have their own adherents, provided that devices meet real needs and are available at satisfactory prices. This future with a multiplicity of devices seems much more likely than that we will all choose the same sized handset whatever that might be.
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BPWrap
October 24th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
I must say I had a Blackberry and after a year I got rid of it for a standard Sony Ericsson camera cell phone. Trying to do more with my phone, turning it into a PDA just:
a) drained the battery even faster so I was forever charging it
b) never left me in peace with emails AND phonecalls coming through, I never seemed to get a quiet moment
c) gave me sore fingers and thumbs from tapping away at a tiny keyboard!
I’ve now gone back to a Filofax and only use my mobile for personal/business calls and the odd photo (though I secretly post photos direct from the phone to a blog!)
Daz
Daz
October 24th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
I think many feel as you do, Daz. Your a) reason, battery drain, is an important factor that is often overlooked.
October 30th, 2006 at 9:17 am
[...] It’s been hard to sort all of the weeks entries into categories but a couple did stand out, the first of which was Mobile Devices. Steve Litchfield of AllAboutSymbian starts us off with an investigation into the visibility of various Smartphone screens in sunlight, paying particular attention to Touch-Screen devices. Which screen is best for sunny days on the beach? Click through to find out. Barry Welford is also interested in Screens this week looking at different trends in screen size with the mobile industry going smaller and the desktop industry going bigger. Jennifer Miner of Suite 101 takes a look at the new Blackberry Pearl. Find out what she thinks of RIMs attempt to appeal to the mass market. David Beers covers the Palm Treo 680 release and what it could mean to the future of the Palm OS. [...]
November 15th, 2006 at 8:52 am
I think many feel as you do, Daz. Your a) reason, battery drain, is an important factor that is often overlooked.
January 4th, 2009 at 3:23 am
Well thats a good written post but can you maybe explain the difference between a PDA and Smartphone ?
January 4th, 2009 at 7:41 am
I don’t believe there is a difference although a PDA may sometimes have more functionality.