In the near future, the following conversation will take place between two Twenty Somethings:
TS#1- "Man, remember the iPod? Now there was an innovative device!"
TS#2-"Yea, Dude, I remember it had this cool click wheel thingy. It was so Tripandicular."
TS#1-"I've still got my 80 Gig U-2 Special Edition laying around somewhere. Who would have thought that device would die off like it did?"
TS#2-"Yea man, it went the way of Kurt Cobain, the GPS and the Play Station Portable. Dead and buried!"
The Truth is, that future is already here! Apple reported that nine million iPods were sold in the second quarter of this year. But that has been the fewest moved in a quarter since the iPod was introduced in the fall of 2001. Analysts predict that number will continue to shrink.
And the Portable Gaming Market?
"The iPhone and iPod Touch accounted for 5 percent, or about $500 million, of the U.S. video game software market last year, a five-fold increase from a year earlier, according to San Francisco research firm Flurry. Application sales may exceed $760 million this year, according to a report by Tokyo researcher Enterbrain Inc." (Source - SFgate.com)
GPS Heavyweights Garmin and Tom Tom have also reported smaller sales recently as both have tried to change their business model to better compete, but so far, neither have found a winning combination. In Garmin's case, it partnered with ASUS to offer a GPS phone but sales have been dismal at best. Tom Tom currently offers a paid app in Apple's App Store. More than likely, these companies have seen their better days.
It's obvious as to what is going on here. This really has nothing to do with inferior products. And everything to do with Superior products. or at least products that do multiple things really, really well!
Question: What would you rather purchase? A GPS for $300, a Portable Gaming System for $200, an MP-3 player for $200 or a Phone/GPS/Portable Gaming System/MP3 Player for as little as FREE With a Two year phone agreement? This is basically where the mobile Smartphone Market is today!
Some very nice quality games can be found in Apple's App Store. Average price? $2.99! And you don't have to use the built in phone directions to take you to Game Stop because it's on your device in seconds after you click it!
I have a Tom Tom Go 930. It is an incredible GPS unit! But it never goes with me! Even though it's a better unit than the Maps App on my Nexus. Why? Google's Maps is very good and my Nexus also happens to be my phone/entertainment/communications device!
Years ago, someone stuck the moniker of Smartphone on these devices. But I'm not so sure that Smartphone is even an accurate term to describe these devices today. Many tasks that started out on the desktop computer have translated well to the mobile platform. Email, Facebook, Twitter, and Gaming to name a few. And in some cases these mobile apps are superior to their PC cousins. Don't forget to include GPS, MP-3, Streaming Music and Video, Weather, Camera, Internet Browsing, Books, Stocks, Calculator, Clock, Your Contacts, Vacation Pictures and Videos, and a myriad of other apps for other mobile options, and it's evident to see what the Gadget of the future is going to be! Apple and Google are already hard at work on the next versions of it too.
Soon, Video calling will be a standard part of the mobile phone experience. And just last week, pictures surfaced of the Sony/Ericsson Playstation Phone that is rumored to feature it's own Playstation gaming app store! Google offers a Voice to Text feature where you speak what you want to type. It's far from perfect, but it really isn't bad. This feature will only improve with time! As technology improves in these mobile platforms, these advances are almost sure to show up in Apple/Google services and products for traditional computers and new market segment Tablets. And most Tech industries are more than aware of these facts. That is why HP gave $1.2 Billion for Palm, a company that by the way, hadn't been profitable for several years. It's why Microsoft scraped it's aging mobile OS, called 6.5 and built from the ground up a new Mobile Operating System it calls Windows Phone 7. These tech heavyweights aren't going to be heavyweights forever if they don't figure out how to compete with the likes of Google and Apple. These companies all see the future of Technology embedded in devices called the Smartphone.
The truth is, I should ebay my digital camera, a couple of digital Camcorders, an iPod touch, and a Tom Tom GPS to someone else who will let them gather dust. Because most every day, no matter where I go or what I do, as long as I have my Nexus One in my pocket, I really don't think about any of those other devices. And if you own a Smartphone, I'm betting you are no different.
Weeks ago, the following conversation might have taken place between two Fifty Somethings.
FS#1 - "Remember the Texas Instruments Pocketronic 400 Calculator?"
FS#2 - "Oh yea! it was designed around three MOS circuits and could add, subtract, multiply, and divide; it sold for $399."
FS#1- "Ran on Batteries too! Now that was innovative! Do they even make Calculators anymore?"
FS#2- "Yea, but they don't call them calculators. They call them phones."
Buds who Blog