Mobiles Displacing or Converging Digicams and iPods?
There is some interesting discussion in Mobhappy about Mobiles Killing-off Music Players and Cameras. Nokia’s head of multimedia makes an aggressive stand stating this fact. However, Russell responds with:
Nokia made a similarly apprently implausible claim back in 2000 about cameras. However, James at Moco News points out that the stand alone camera market didn’t in fact die and that the same will be true of MP3 players and video cameras.
Russell takes the middle ground. Both will continue to exist for quite sometime. I, however, see something different happening. I agree with Nokia that both devices will begin to converge. However, what we cannot conclude is who will be the surviving entity? Will portable music player makers such as Apple and Creative win out? Or will the mobile folks such as Nokia, Sony and Motorola rule? This is something for manufacturers to seriously think about and release new and exciting products for users to base their decisions on. In the end, the market decides.
March 23rd, 2006 at 8:25 am
In the Philippines, maybe not just yet. I don’t think the folks here have that much spending power even though they try very hard.
March 23rd, 2006 at 8:55 am
Ah yes I just came out of a meeting that touched that topic. But, then again, these high-tech handsets will eventually become cheaper too. Besides, why keep a separate audio player, camera and cellular phone when you can just have one integrated device?
March 24th, 2006 at 11:16 am
True. It would be nice to have that one convergent device. However, there are some folks who like the thought of having specific gadgets.
Hmmm. Think for example of someone who would like to jog. Not everyone would like to have their phone along with them while jogging… But it all depends also on the lifestyle.
March 30th, 2006 at 2:22 am
Ah yes. The arguement about special devices for special reasons. Sounds like the Unix philosophy to me. You have a point tho. There will always be a market for devices with specific uses.
March 30th, 2006 at 8:06 am
There is this new article in mobhappy about Computer’s Displacing Mobiles. He primary uses the mobile as access device to centralized hosted applications. I also believe in this direction. So now there is an epic battle on who will be the king of these centralized hosted applications. Will it be big brother Google?