Distributing the Anti iPhone
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
At the FiRE conference in San Diego, back in May, the science fiction wtiter and TV presenter David Brin set a group of CTOs a challenge. The men behind the technology decisions at EMC, Adobe and IBM were challenged to rethink the phone - completely.
The results were surprising - with the CTOs coming up with a phone that wasn’t one device, or one software platform, but a tool for brining together the many different portable devices we carry, and the many software services we use. All the information, all the ethnographic studies, all the ergonomic research they had told them one thing: “one size fits all” wasn’t enough, and it never would be. The trend to converged devices like Apple’s iPhone may suit the manufacturers, but it won’t suit the users.
Discrete devices got the same thumbs down. A Windows Mobile phone and a Zune sat in a bag are another technological dead end. They may be perfectly capable tools, with plenty of communications options - but they can’t work together. That’s another pitfall, as best of breed and jack of all trades struggle to support increasingly demanding users. We want it all - and we want it now.
It’s worth going back in time a decade or so, to the ubiquitous computing research of people like the late Mark Weiser. Xerox PARC labs was at the forefront of work in building prototype ubiquitous computing systems. Computing was going to be everywhere, Moore’s Law would see to that - so the big question was how it would fit together and fade into the background. PARC defined a set of communicating devices - from UI-less tabs that sat in a pocket or attached to other pieces of hardware, to communicating, informing pads, and the massive displays of walls. These were all linked together, taking information in and sharing it around the network.
Ubiquitous computing is about more than separate devices that need to be synchronised by a desktop PC - it’s about finding ways to let the devices interact. Apple has made a (pun intended) step in the right direction with its Nike shoe sensor and iPod integration, but that’s only part of the story. Runners are struggling to bring the information from that pairing to the route mapping tools from companies like Garmin, where GPS sensors plot out a run on Google Maps. Now imagine the benefit to a training regime of a set of linked sensors and services that not only plot routes and times, but also pace length and heart rates.
That’s the world the CTOs came up with. It’s a world where the phone acts as a communications hub, but other devices provide elements of the user interface, and remote services add computing power that small form factor devices can’t provide.
You can take that viewpoint and spin it out further, to 20 years from now when Western countries are struggling to support an ageing population., Distributed devices can help people maintain an independent life, while still providing doctors with information on physical capabilities and adherence to drug regimes. It’s a big brother world, but more like the American Big Brother organisations, where adult role models seek to inspire and educate. Tomorrow’s big brother phone will connect you to the world, and help you take advantage of the tools and services the digital world provides.
A brave new world indeed, but one without the solid lump of an iPhone in your pocket.
Rated: 80% (1 votes)
Loading ...Comment by Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe - November 29, 2007 on 12:06 pm
What struck me most in the discussion was how many things people asked for that they thought were not technically possible and it turned out they were all possible - but the mobile operators weren’t allowing them. If Google’s posturing with Android makes more operators unlock the way Verizon has that could change; Apple is pushing in the other direction by taking such a huge share of call revenue that it has no incentive for disrupting the business model.
-Mary
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