Can we have more phone-less handheld computing?
Not so long ago we had Personal Digital Assistants, PDAs. I owned a couple of the later ones, a Toshiba Pocket PC and a Palm TX. PDAs started as companion devices to keep you organized, but eventually their operating systems became advanced enough that they expanded functionality to include media players, games, and web browsers. These started merging with cell phones, and now we have the smartphone revolution, where our ever-connected, pocketable devices can do pretty much anything we want them to.
Leading the pack, at least in terms of consumer appeal, is Apple’s iPhone. However, they keep updating their “mp3 player”, the iPod Touch, to be feature-complete with the iPhone. It offers a low-cost, low-commitment entry point into the world of handheld computing. It’s essentially the modern incarnation of a PDA. The iPod touch sells incredibly well. And why wouldn’t it? It has no competition.
The former heavy hitters of the handheld computer have abandoned it for phone-only versions. Palm (HP now) and Microsoft have two great operating systems that could very well compete with the iPod Touch. Just strip the phone apps from WebOS and Windows Phone 7, and there you go. Instant iPod Touch competitors. Worse yet, why is there no Android-based iPod Touch equivalent (aside from the Archos players, but those are pretty big, not really pocketable)? You don’t even have to pay a license fee to make one of those. So why are all these companies letting Apple take the whole market?
I have no idea.
First of all, there’s the whole smartphone-less (for now) youth market (kids and especially teens). Let’s face it, the Nintendo DS and the PSP have their fingers far, far from the pulse of where the handheld gaming. Their upcoming, single-purpose, portable gaming consoles will retail for more than the cost of an iPod Touch. Then, of course, they expect you to pay at least $40 per game. You know how many iOS games you can buy for forty dollars? Infinity, give or take. I could write a whole post on how much they’re screwing this up, but I digress. The point is the iPod touch can entertain the youth (and adults, myself included) with games, but not only that, it has a metric ton of social networking apps, web browser, YouTube, etc. It’s a cheap, starter “computer” for all intents and purposes. So let’s say kids gravitate towards iOS. A few years from now, when they’re all grown up and it’s time for a smartphone, what do you think they’re going to want? I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the OS in which they already have all their games on and are used to. It works the same way Microsoft gets students to use Office. Later, when they go into the work force it’s all they know how to use, thus what they need.
That’s what gets me, Microsoft knows this trick. Get them while they’re young. Yet here they are, wasting a huge market. They already have the most popular console gaming ecosystem with Xbox Live and the Xbox 360. Windows Phone 7 (WP7) has Xbox Live functionality. It’s simple logic, really. Use Xbox Live as a Trojan horse to get the youth on a phone-less WP7 device! Hell, I’d buy one. Achievements are magically delicious, you know. That brings me to my second point, I’d really like a secondary “entertainment” device. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I don’t really think the whole games/music/movies on my phone is all that great until we get some real leaps in battery technology. Smartphone batteries barely last a day as it is, let alone if they have to satisfy your Angry Birds and Netflix streaming addictions.
The “handheld-computing/entertainment-device that’s not a phone” has a lot of potential, but no one seems to care. Can we fix this now please? I really want to get a nice little smart device for gaming and MP3 player use, instead of these ridiculous 3DS and NGP consoles.
If MS knows about this computing space (or at least they are aware of a technique that would naturally point to the computing space you just mentioned), then everyone knows about this computing space, therefore everyone is actually ignoring this computing space either because it is not profitable or it is not possible to compete, however I do agree that there is a market for low cost ultra-portable computing. I think companies are racing to occupy a market space in handheld computers that Apple currently has in mp3 players: High margin devices that are, from the spec point of view, overpriced. Competitors to Apple are also avoiding the cheap handhelds to prevent from being in the wrong side of the wasteland that has become of mp3 players where everything that isn’t made by Apple is pretty low margin, a commodity where the business unit that provides the product is only good for divestment. Entering the ipod touch’s target demographic now will be seen as a “me too” move and will pretty much by itself admit that Apple is an innovator, which will lead to a reduction in the premium any brand will be worth, thus reducing the entering device’s price, which will make it then look like the “commodity” alternative, and it is mp3 hell ver2.0. So if you are trying not to thin out your company’s resources too much your choices are either to compete with a chance of becoming the high margin provider of handhelds by avoiding cheap devices, or to compete in cheap devices where you will be no higher than #2 and with low margins. The second alternative is harder for the investors to swallow, unless you are a Chinese firm. And don’t get me started on Android, it just aggravates the whole race to the bottom. I bet that thing can even run on toasters.
I can still feel that same void as you. But like you said, we are all aware that there is a holy grail in handheld computing (one that can do everything, in your pocket, and runs on cold fusion) and so long it this idea persists there will be no incentive for anyone to be in this transient market, save those who are in a privileged position to do so or have some other motive other than direct profit. I also think the big companies have also not aged very well and are unable to really take advantage of these new trends, but that is another topic.
Why not hack into a cheap hand held in the mean time? The nook color is $250 and can be rooted to run Android OS rather than the factory make.
Good points, Pincho. For most companies, your argument is dead on, but I think at least Microsoft should get in the market. They have all the R&D done basically, the OS is done, the apps ecosystem is there. What’s stopping them from making an Xbox-branded WP7 device to compete with the iPod Touch. And while they might not be able to pick up any of Apple’s market share, they can sure as hell pick up from Sony and Nintendo’s shares of handheld gaming, and all the other features of WP7 are just bonus (and gets you to buy into their ecosystem).
The Nook Color intrigued me, but I’m going to wait and see what new tablets come out over the next few months, before plunking down some cash.
Also, I just remembered the Dell Streak (5″) That would’ve been a great little handheld computer if they hadn’t shoehorned it into being a phone.