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Bit Bucket
You see, about six months before Avery Brooks and IBM took to the airwaves in an ad campaign that only I seem to remember, I was lamenting the lack of an all-in-one device that could handle all of my data, phone and PIM (Personal Information Management) needs. This device wouldn't be much bigger than what the Compaq iPaq ended up being, would be connected through a wireless broadband connection, and would be affordable -- around $350 or so (like my mother always said, you get what you pay for). This, in the twisted mind of a gadget hound, would be my equivalent of the Jetsons' flying car, a sign that we had reached a Golden Age of Enlightenment, and that a cure for the common cold would only be weeks away. Last year, I was certain that I was making progress towards seeing my flying car. Kyocera revamped their Smartphone into a useable model, and Handspring's VisorPhone was such a thing of beauty that I ended up purchasing one after I had to return my review model. Apparently, not many people shared my enthusiasm for the VisorPhone. While I think the Treo will be a gorgeous little device, it doesn't fix the fact that the VisorPhone was too expensive in the initial offering, and poorly marketed. That's not the fault of the marketing team -- like TiVo, it's tough to get a feel for how great the product is until you're face-to-face with it. Does the problem lie deeper still? Let's take a look at the last ten years of the World Wide Web. From the first inklings of public acceptance to today, the desktop computer and the laptop computer have been the way to view data online. Once browsers from Microsoft and Netscape saw eye to eye on how to render pages, the question went up -- "How do we get these pages in a mobile environment?" One answer was to make the pages viewable on mobile phones, utilizing WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). While WAP has its scores of detractors, I still hold that major developers never got serious about developing for the protocol, focusing on wireless broadband instead. Also, developers would still have to employ WAP / XML tags to their existing pages, when getting them to write valid HTML is tough enough. How about using your PDA? Sure, there's AvantGo and MS' "Honey, I Shrunk Internet Explorer!" for Pocket PC 2002. The trick is getting the pages into your PDA to begin with, and if you're not close to a sync cradle, or are the pauper who can't afford an 802.11 sleeve for your wee beastie, you'll have to wait until you get home. Kind of spolis the whole 'mobility' angle, doesn't it? Besides, unless you have a high-dollar PDA, such as the aforementioned iPaq, HP's Jornada, or the Visor Prism, you're looking at eight-bit graphics on an itty screen. The gadget hounds will dig it regardless, but the reason Aunt Laverne in Dubuque browses the Net is the pretty colors and pictures. Will the WebPad solve the mobility question once and for all? Advanced R&D labs would sure like you to think so, and the prototypes that get trotted out for trade shows are sure purty and all. But remember one thing: if it's not marketed properly, it will not sell. Look at the last big industry-wide flop -- Internet appliances were supposed to make such a dent in the way Aunt Laverne surfed that she wouldn't need to get a computer. Instead, the value of the product wasn't communicated, and millions of units went, unsold, into recycling landfills. Without proper forethought, the WebPad faces a similar fate. "So, Señor Smartypants, do you have a solution?" I wish. I've fallen in love with plenty of devices in the last five years, only to watch them fall into a pit of consumer apathy and corporate neglect. The next 'killer device' will come at us from out of the blue, and it won't be mistaken for a Star Trek transporter when it's just a scooter. It'll truly be a flying car.
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