A device for every purpose and then some

To fully understand this post you’ll need to appreciate that I’m a geek and so have the normal geek armoury hanging off my shoulder more or less everywhere I go.

Within that I have a camera, two mobile phones (one for calls one for internet), a NDS, a book, a notebook, a netbook, a video camera, an audio recording device and a few other bits and pieces.

That’s the reason I have a bad back BUT more importantly it’s the reason I rarely get bored – everywhere I go I carry a full on entertainment system with me and am ready to cover any news story that might break around me.

Because of always carrying a good camera I’ve managed to get photos of armed sieges, gas leaks, protest and more that I wouldn’t have got to in time if I had to go back and get a camera.

But I got thinking the other day – with mobile devices becoming more comprehensive in their feature lists and with each individual feature becoming more usuable – do I really still need all those devices.

I could get an iPhone or a new Android based phone that can take photos, video, get online, act as a mini computer, do video, let me read books, record audio and even let me send anything I gather straight to the internet.

But, it’s main purpose is the internet device, the mini internet device – it LETS me do all of the above but none of it to a standard a device designed with the purpose in mind can.

Do I think the dawn of the single device is upon us? No not even a little bit but I do think we’re entering an era where every individual device will be able to do many of the things every other device in my bag can do – to a limited extent.

It’s only a matter of time before my camera has internet access (some can already do video) and every other device can do a little bit of everything.

I see a world not so much built around one device doing everything reasonably well but a selection of devices each doing one thing really well AND a selection of other things reasonably well.

That was if you do forget one device there is something else that can fill in behind it – just not as well as it would have done on its own.

I’ll settle for mobile phone pics if I forget my camera, I’ll settle for reading on a netbook or browsing the web on my phone if I forget my book or netbook – but neither is how I’d CHOOSE to do it.

Interestingly – my wife who isn’t exactly a geek has a camera, mobile phone, iPod and NDS in her bag and carries them more or less everywhere she goes – even if they are all pink!

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