Comments on: Unnecessary Convergence

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:02:23 +0000

Bizarrely, I can actually understand the thought processes involved in a combo dictionary/mp3 player. It’s the fact that you can now download all those ‘Linguaphone’-style learn-a-language lessons as MP3s. That doesn’t make it any more palatable, but at least someone at Franklin has cornered a niche market (which they’re very good at, to be fair).

By: Steven Hoober

Steven Hoober — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:57:22 +0000

Well, I only asked a few users, so I know its still pretty anecdotal, but yeah, they know the phone can do it.

Worse, the few I see with iPhones. Not a music listener so far. Any music is always coming out of another device. Now THAT wigs me out. I would have thought that low-friction iTMS and so on would have fixed this, but no. Hmmm.

Someone with a large research budget should look into it more.

By: Ricky

Ricky — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:24:05 +0000

Nice observation, Steven. I wonder, though, do they *KNOW* about the music capabilities on their device?

Also, while I use my N95 as my exclusive portable music solution, it’s due to the serious lack of synchronization software? Apple has easily the most seamless way of loading music on their devices. I wonder, if a mobile phone manufacturer duplicated the simplicity, if users would be more keen to use their handsets as MP3 players?

Basically, I think the gap lies between the device and the computer, and not the device and the user.

By: Steven Hoober

Steven Hoober — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:48:13 +0000

I take a bus to work some days. Its almost entirely college students, so I spend a lot of the time just looking about to see their mobile habits (or taking surreptitious photos so I can tell everyone else at the office).

I have seen every flavor of phone, every kind of iPod, a CD-player (but no non-apple MP3 players), straight PDAs, laptops, tablets and lots of books and papers.

I have, on the other hand, NOT ONE TIME seen any of them listening to music on their phone (and 3/4 of them do have headphones on). Or browsing the web on their phone. Or pretty much any convergence to speak of, really. A few games, a few texts. Many have two devices, and make calls on the flippy moto, then pull out the blackberry for txting.

When I have asked users (in the younger target markets) about music capabilities on their device, they scoff about it. So… the devices are converged (or suffer feature-itis), but do the users care?

By: Ricky

Ricky — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:00:52 +0000

Heh, I was at Fry’s Electronics recently here in Houston and found that LG makes a combination microwave/toaster, and someone else has a combination microwave/coffee maker.

The toaster one got me. It’s literally a regular microwave, with a toaster embedded in the side. I should have taken pics.