Every single smartphone on the planet, whether it be the Apple iPhone, Motorola or HTC Android devices, RIM’s BlackBerry, various Windows Mobile devices from HTC and Samsung, or Nokia’s Symbian powered Eseries and Nseries lineup, they all have a series of problems. Technology journalists, especially those who cover the telecommunications industry, often carry more than one mobile device. Every member of the IntoMobile staff carries a different device and that speaks to the industry’s ability to target a specific niche. What if that wasn’t the case? What if someone made a smartphone that would appeal to everyone?
Mission Impossible is the name of a new series I’m starting to describe that perfect mobile device.
From what the mobile will look like, to how the home screen operates, to the application development environment, to how it will connect to your computer and to the cloud, the point of “Mission Impossible” is to describe a particular piece of hardware, and an ecosystem around it that can only be described as perfect. Now you may not agree with the opinions I have, and that’s OK, but instead of pointing out the issues with each and every device or service I blog about, and hoping that people in the industry take notice of the issues I’ve highlighted across multiple blog posts, I’m going to attempt to organize my thoughts in a narrative that describe the mobile phone I hope I’ll be using by this time next decade.
10 years may be a lot of time, but the industry moves quite slowly. Compare something like the 2009 iPhone 3GS to the 2002 Nokia 7650, the first Symbian powered smartphone, and you’re likely to call me mad to call that pace of innovation slow, but the reality of the situation is that mobile telecommunications has done nothing but take advantage of the technological efficiencies that came about from Moore’s Law, and the century old technique of achieving logistical efficiency by creating massive scale. Boring for people who live on the bleeding edge, and a miracle for the people in emerging economies who spend several months salary on the lowest end device Nokia offers.
Faster processors, larger screens, stronger materials, they’re all well and good at making the way we use mobile phones appear more modern when placed next to the bricks of the century, but are we really taking advantage of everything we have available to us today?
Stay tuned to what I hope will be an eye opening series.