Smartphones vs. one-trick ponies
In a world full of multi-purpose devices, such as personal computers and smartphones, are we in danger of losing all of those electronic devices and gadgets that perform just one function?
The iPhone and its smartphone competitors may well offer the best case in point. Most of them can be used to do many things and to do them very well. As an example, many people I know carry a smartphone because it enables them (and me) to tote around fewer devices. The iPhone is not only a telephone. It also replaces (and replaces very well indeed) an MP3 player, an e-reader, a GPS navigator, a calculator, a restaurant guide, a video player, and (in my case) a level and plumb-bob.
It may well be true that smartphones are expensive. Rather than using a phone that a wireless carrier will give us for free, many of us spring for a couple of hundred dollars for a smartphone. But in so doing, we are obviating the need to buy all those other devices. Smartphones are the Swiss army knives of electronic devices that will fit in your pocket or purse. Many of us are opting for one device instead of many, according to a Business Week article, though a few one-trick ponies still sneak through.
It is probably the almighty app which has closed the smartphone loop, making it possible to shed any number of previously de rigeur electronic pocket pals. The app has turned the smartphone into a real competitor for the personal computer, although smaller and slower. For many purposes, the smartphone is enough and, besides, they are becoming faster, smarter, and easier to use with each new generation of handset.
A couple of years ago, there was no iPhone. Today, we are complaining that these modern marvels are not fast or versatile enough, at the same time we are buying millions of them, voting them “almost good enough” with our wallets. Moving forward, the smartphone will become better and better at its multitude of jobs. One day soon, we will all look down at the million-color touchscreen device that we have just removed from our pocket, realize that it is a very good small personal computer, and then remember “Oh yeah, and by the way, it has a phone in it!”
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