A lucky co incidence this, SEV’s post about the cell phone factor, and what I’ve written below.

About five years ago, I was the proud owner of a Nokia 3310. It did the job, allowed me to make and receive calls (and get charged for it too, bullshit). In a 2 year phase after that, I got gifted a 64mb card based mp3 player. Very few then even knew what memory cards were. Then I realised, it made no sense using an analog camera, given the cost factor in developing every roll of film. Bought a 2.1megapixel digital camera, with a humongous 32MB card. Also got a 64mb USB flash drive. By the end of 2002, I was completely gadegtised. Felt good. I was connected with the times, for a long time to come, or so I thought.

Fast forward. Circa 2006. I simply have a Nokia 6680. The ‘phone’ has a 1GB memory card. A 1.3megapixel camera. Pretty good photo quality. Bluetooth connectivity. It syncs with my computer. Doubles up as my personal organizer. I can store files on it. The headset is pretty powerful. I listen to my music on it. But by no stretch of imagination, is it bleeding edge technology, though the usage possibilities are close to limitless. I sometimes use my phone as a web camera. I can connect it to my car with a FM transmitter, and play music off it. (It’s a different question, I do not have a car anymore). I use it as a remote control for my PC. Does not look too bad either, though a little on the bulky side. I’ve been following the Smartphone market for a while now, and I thought it was worthwhile to look at it chronologically, from a general perspective, just to see how close we were to reality, that is convergence. Yeah, I know, I’m a Nokia loyalist. You’ll see a lot of Nokia below. That will make up another post, on WHY exactly I am one. Zion, you alredy know.

August 2005: On a sunny day in Aberdeen, United Kingdom, me and SEV kicked up a conversation. Music players in phones were quite good anyway, it was just a question of using the right kind of headphones for optimum output. Phone cameras were improving. Were we looking at device convergence? Were we looking at people carrying ONE device, for everyday practical purposes (camera, Music, calls)? What about the battery life? Would such a hypothetical device sustain itself to an average days use?? We concluded, there would be people like me (refer what I wrote in the above paragraph), who preferred carrying one device, which was not necessarily cutting edge. An independent school of thought would suggest, carry each device separately, so that you circumvent the over-reliance on one device, and risk it running out of battery. There were too many questions and too many possibilities, and we could not conclusively agree about what would happen, in the near future.

December 2005: The charge of the Nokia N Series. SEV bought a Nokia N70. 2MP camera. ‘Amazing’ picture clarity (Lord’s Cricket ground on Shutterbugs, is proof enough). On the software side of it, there were still limitations. Then, another close friend bought herself a Sony Eriksson W550i. 2mp camera, built - in mp3 player. Brilliant sound quality. Yes, we thought. Convergence was finally happening, though there was still some distance to traverse, at least software wise, and battery wise.

April 2006: The Nokia N91 was already widely available. 4gb disk. More than what anyone ever imagined would happen in one year. About 10 hours of battery life. 2mp Carl Zeiss Camera. Wi-fi connectivity. Convergence moved a few steps ahead. Then came the Nokia N80. It had EVERYTHING. My ideal upgrade. Bluetooth, Wi-fi, 3MP camera, Radio, Mp3 player. Showed up as an external hard disk in Windows Explorer. Supported upto 2GB mini SD cards. Simultaneously, Sony Eriksson released the k800i Cybershot phone. Again, BRILLIANT. Both were Digital Camera replacements. Convergence was here, finally.

But the charge has not stopped there. Even as I write this, there is a Nokia N93, which is a first, in the sense that it comes with 3x Optical zoom, a much needed improvement over the excuse called digital zoom. All the other bells and whistles are, of course present. There is also talk of a Sony Eriksson phone, on the same lines.

The point I’m making is simple. We’re heading towards a scenario where you have ONE essential communication and media device. However much the purists argue, the enticement for a unified device is immense. I do not think anyone would prefer carrying a digital camera, an mp3 player and a phone separately. To sum it up, we first had phones with cameras and Mp3 players. Now, we have mp3 players and cameras, that also have a simcard slot and a numeric keypad. And the future looks even more promising, with phones with TV out capability added to what’s mentioned above and huge hard drives, or ultra high capacity cards.

I’ve not even mentioned Samsung in the paragraphs above. They’re building phones with 5MP cameras. God knows what’s going to happen next year. I’m waiting, with excitement.

PS:- Given a choice, anyone still prefer a flash drive based mp3 player? I certainly dont.

Related to this, I wrote on