Peter Odum has written about design principles for converged devices. Here’s a summary of the principles he outlines:
Link: Convergent Experiences, Diverse Devices (idlemode.com)
I just stumbled across the great Sender11 blog, which publishes articles about design for mobile devices. Here are some interesting provocations that were published recently:
Myth: The future of mobile is the Web
Myth: Converged devices
Myth: Your users are nomadic
Myth: The youth is leading the way
Link: Mobile Myths (sender11.typepad.com)
Here are the headline predictions:
1. The big squeeze, operators cosying up and a push on data
2. Device convergence—the rise of the multimedia handset
3. Mobile 2.0—user-generated content, social networking, location-based services
4. Femtocells—a cost-cutting, data services driver—or not?
5. Disruption—not just the Google factor
Link: Five Mobile Trends for 2008 (businessweek.com, via)
Apple finally got their phone. I had two immediate reactions. It’s fantastic that a company has released a touch-screen phone that’s hitting the mass market. I hope this is a wake up call to other manufacturers: touch-screen devices are not just for the high end PDA market. Second, I’m very interested to experience text entry on the device. One of the most difficult things to do on a touch-screen is text entry (text entry while in motion can be exceptionally difficult, and is almost impossible one-handed). While the iPhone solution looks interesting, it’s not clear that the solution is completely baked.
Link: Apple – iPhone (apple.com)
Link: The Apple iPhone runs OS X – Engadget (engadget.com)
“If you are old fashioned enough to call these devices “phones,” Nokia people will politely correct you. They are multimedia computers, which offer features and picture quality to rival digital cameras or camcorders, and music quality to challenge an iPod. And because they can connect to the Internet you can check e-mail, download songs, or even update your blog while on the go. (Thought the world already had enough blogs? Think again.)”
Link: Nokia Puts Your Digital Life in Your Hand (businessweek.com)
A review of the book Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing.
“McCullough introduces a set of typologies for pervasive computing products. Types are “generative design abstractions”, which “unite periphery, passivity, phenomenology, adaptability, affordance, facility, appropriateness, and scale.” Although that sounds overwhelming, consider a simple urban architectural type: the sidewalk cafe, which probably suggests to you not just some formal requirements, but some social patterns, behavioral etiquette, and may trigger some memories of experiences. This is embodiment at work. In the middle section of the book, McCullough explores a set of “situated types” for pervasive computing at length, along with ten technological “functions” that form pervasive computing systems (such as “sensors detect action”). The types read something like a cross between Alexander’s architectural design patterns and interaction design scenarios, and are the most exciting section of the book. It would be a productive exercise to use the ten functions to brainstorm ideas for pervasive computing within the types.”
Link: Review of Malcolm McCullough’s ‘Digital Ground’ (hoytowell.com)
“The problem which PDAs will still face, even once they follow this trend and become cheaper and more simple, is that people are not going to want to carry multiple devices with them. Despite what the Z22 has to offer, many consumer will opt to use another product, despite it being a good deal more complex, so that they will not be weighed done with electronics. The last bastion of PDA users may become those people who do not own a high-end phone or carry a laptop with them for work.”
Link: The Future of the PDA (xyzcomputing.com)
Podcast of a discussion panel from SXSW ‘06.
“A library of music that might have once filled an entire room can now be stored on an MP3 player smaller than a deck of playing cards. New chip technologies and improved memory capabilities are enabling music players and a host of gadgets to decrease in size while simultaneously increasing in functionality. This session explores the next wave of innovation while also examining the cultural impact of such changes.”
Link: Smaller, Faster, Lighter (download 29.5MB MP3, sxsw.com)
A KPMG research report into the state of consumer behaviour and attitudes towards converged services.
“Asia is ground zero for converged services. Of the three regions covered in this survey, Asia emerged as the one with the greatest near-term opportunity for mobile service providers seeking to leverage a converged service strategy…This elevated state of awareness is wholly appropriate in a region where transportation to and from work consumes more of the day than perhaps in any other region. As a matter of routine, 31 percent of Asian consumers surveyed spend between 1 and 2 hours commuting each way, to work and back home. Another 12 percent spends between 2 and 3 hours commuting each way…Small wonder, then, that Asian consumers have developed a remarkably intimate relationship with their cellular phones, on which they rely for keeping in touch with business colleagues and loved ones, squeezing out any possible incremental productivity, as well as deriving whatever entertainment and diversion might be available during these lengthy treks.”
Link: Consumers and Convergence: Challenges and opportunities in meeting next generation customer needs (PDF, kpmg.com)
Published by Gabriel White.