It really is not that long ago that small gadgets like mobile phones, audio players, cameras, PDA’s and GPS systems would be carried around routinely by their users as separate items. Nevertheless, over the past couple of years these items have been combined into mobile phones, that now generally present a multitude of functions in one small convenient item. This process of a coming together of separate technologies is referred to as ‘convergence’.

Cellular phone manufacturers realised that as their items grew to become an crucial element of every day life, they needed to find more and more ingenius ways to stimulate users to often upgrade to the latest product. Including the additional functions was an easy approach to attain this and trigger people to buy more of their products.

The most extreme illustration of convergence was when Apple released the iPhone, which brought just about every pocket electronic device together into 1 convenient product. No more would the traveller need a separate GPS route planner or a separate portable video games player or video player. The photographic quality also improved to the point that their pictures can now rival those of dedicated compact cameras. High definition video can be captured onto compact memory cards which offer enormous storage capacity, rivalling that of the computer hard drives of only few years back. Following the mainstream adoption of the smartphone within the last couple of years lots of people now use their cell phone as a portable pc, routinely loading ‘Apps’ for an enormous range of purposes.

With some of the very most recent gadgets like the Samsung Galaxy Notethey are now seeking to bridge the gap between phones and smaller tablet computers by offering a fully featured hybrid that enables users to exchange these two gadgets with just one. So it seems that the ‘golden age’ enjoyed by the cell phone producers in the age of miniaturisation is coming to an end. They could find it a lot more challenging in years to come to discover ways to encourage owners to trade up every year or two to the latest ‘must have’ device.

Possibly they will have to work somewhat harder on 3D or holographic displays, or perhaps true voice recognition and artificial intelligence? I suspect though, that like the space race of the 60s and 70s, when we all believed that at this point we’d be living on the moon, our pocket electronics are arriving at a final point of convergence where they’re as good as they’re going to get!

David A Griffiths is a specialist technology expert in the United Kingdom. At the same time managing a number of ventures, with distinct focus on making money on line and mentoring beginners to learn internet marketing.

Technorati Tags: , , ,