Which devices should fear the smartphone?
Reading about how scared GPS device manufacturers are about the widespread release of smartphones with that capability integrated, I cannot help but think it is so logical. This functionality is desirable by all of us, so why not have it in the one device that we use all day?
Thinking a bit further, GPS devices are not the only ones on the list to be eclipsed. Smartphones have only started gulping relentlessly everything on their way. Organisers and calculators were the first to eat the dust of mobile telephones. Here is products standing in line waiting for their turn:
- GPS devices: As mentioned above, the new iPhone and a host of other smartphones already have GPS. Critics say that screens are too small, but touchscreens and sliding keyboards have enhanced cellphones enough to make them comfortable for general use, matching the cheaper dedicated GPS product segment. Do not forget that voice instructions can greatly compensate for the smaller screen shortcoming.
- MP3 players: You can surely store lots of songs in a dedicated MP3 player. But with flash memory being now a standard and cheap to buy feature of any mobile telephone that respects itself, and USB plus Bluetooth connectivity made simple, you can get enough hours of listening for a good evening headache. And don’t forget that this trend was a major factor that convinced Apple to look at the iPhone as a viable segment to compensate for the inescapable iPod decline…
- Cheap cameras: For casual photos, even 3 megapixels are enough. Well, now you can get that with most modern smartphones. In fact, price competition is making camera profit margins so low that camera companies increasingly look at DSLR cameras for high profit margins. With cheap DSLR cameras like the Olympus E-420 and the expected Canon 1000D/Rebel XS around the €500 mark, there is hardly any room left in the cheap compact segment.
- Cheap video cameras: Cheap solid-state camcorders are proving extremely popular. Do they offer high picture quality? No, just standard 640×480. Do they have any special features? Nothing to write home about. Can they be integrated into smartphones? It has happened already, so don’t rush for HD luxury if all you want to shoot is videos for YouTube…
Undoubtedly, smartphones are killer products that we have with us at all times and stay on all the time ready to serve us. And for these reasons they stand every chance of swallowing all the above product segments with ease. If it was otherwise, Microsoft, Google and Apple would never really bother…
