PDA Phones - Fad or Future?
On the way out to Arizona this week, I suddenly felt behind the curve. It seems like everywhere I look now there are people with PDA-type phones (either Palm or PPC-based). It used to be that only the diehard geeks had stuff like that now. On the plane yesterday I saw some very non-geek people with them. In part, this seems to be driven by the whole text message craze. Tiny thumb-keyboards (which have been around quite awhile but not popularized really until the blackberrys) allow folks to somewhat effectively type (some people seem to be frighteningly fast at it) messages. But I think the problem I am having trouble with is the purpose. Is it popular because we use Instant Messaging on our computers so much that we can’t talk using our voice anymore? Or is this done purely to prevent others around them from being annoyed at them talking on the phone?
I can see how this would be fairly popular with kids in school. Messages could be sent silently and then retrieved between classes or somewhere discretely. I guess I should use my imagination more, but I am not sure I get the whole text messaging thing. It’s just kind of funny to see what is essentially 2-way alpha paging going on after all these years.
As for the merger of cell phones and PDA’s. It’s very logical in a lot of ways. I have always felt like a merger of some sort made sense. We don’t need to be carrying around more than one device. How nice to be able to have a phone and all your contact info and some type of access to the web and emails all in one place. But right now, the intimate tie between the phone and the service provider is a frightening thing. If I spent $500 on a PDA phone, I sure as heck wouldn’t be changning services. So maybe that’s the deal, the cell phone companies are incenting people to get these special phones, knowing that they’ll be less likely to switch.