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A number of firms from Intel Corp. to Apple Inc. are currently working to create the next big thing in personal communications technology. Amazingly enough they are, without knowing it, recreating a dream of Gene Roddenberry who created Star Trek.
HTC Corp. and Apple are two of the firms blazing this path with hardware designs that are just waiting for the right internal bits to birth the next big personal communications revolution.
Intel’s Atom initiative, is revolutionary when it comes to connected ultra portable devices. This is because it allows them to stretch smartphones into areas that have historically been the sole domain of PCs and becomes an enabler to what has been a clear effort to converge the two platforms and create a new class of fully functional “Super Smart Phones” originally called “Globals”.
We’ll get to what a Global is shortly; let’s first talk about some of the parents of this future device and what it will take to create a successful one.
Shift a sign of things to come
One of the first bridge products to hit the market in 2008 will be the HTC Shift, which weds a version of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Vista operating system with a version of Windows Mobile to create a hybrid device which isn’t yet the best of both worlds. What currently holds it back is size as the Shift is currently more of a mini-notebook with pervasive wireless capability and a unique feature set than it is a replacement for your phone.
What makes this mini-notebook different is it can shift between OSs. With Vista it has about 2 hours of battery life and it is the first notebook in its class to feel snappy with Vista (in most of the small form-factor laptop products using Vista or XP performance is noticeably slower). In addition, with the push of a button you can switch to an embedded version of Windows Mobile and have e-mail, calendar, and contact support with battery life of up to three days.
Atom: Creating the smartphone
Intel’s new Atom platform takes the core technology that makes the HTC Shift work and makes it vastly smaller and more efficient. This means products in the iPhone class that do not have the limitations that the iPhone currently has (along with virtually all existing smartphones).
Atom promises to fix that and place the power of the PC truly in your pocket with the sustaining limitations being screen size (until flexible screens become practical) and keyboard (touchscreen keyboards haven’t been particularly popular for writing and thumb keyboards are painful for long documents). Getting around these physical limitations, once Atom phones hit the market, there will likely be a huge focus for hardware engineers working on future devices. What made the Global work was a flexible screen and voice-based interface.
Coupled with the graphics improvements for this class of device coming from chip makers Intel, Nvidia, and AMD/ATI the combination should result in an incredible piece of hardware.
Still, Atom promises to make the full PC experience workable in a small device, but workable and successful are two different things.
Making the new class successful
Let’s call this new class of phones, for lack of a better term, Super Smart Phones (I never cared for the term ultra-mobile personal computers and these are door stops if not connected). What Apple showcased with their iPhone applies here and that means there are three primary components to a successful offering.
First, the product must be physically attractive because these devices are personal and people don’t buy ugly personal products. Thin is in and you may be able to grow size on height and width but not on depth. Glass and metals are in, but doing it in a way that the device doesn’t look like it was in three World Wars and lost all of them after a few months of use must be part of the design criteria. It also needs to be unique and, unless it is an iPhone, not another iPhone clone otherwise it will be overshadowed by the future iPhone and Apple.
Second, the user experience must be Apple class or better. This goes from the moment the customer opens the box to when the device drops out of warranty and includes everything from out-of-box experience, to the user interface, to initial set-up, to pairing and accessories, to help and support. It also must include on-line services, or at least the availability of these services. Think of iTunes on steroids. It also must now gain access to a rich set of accessories so that it can be used, personalized and integrated into a variety of environments spanning the home, car and office. Design here is important as well; think in terms of the new Plantronics Discovery 925 Bluetooth headset, sexy and useful.
Third, it must be effectively marketed. This means from initial promotion to sustaining advertising a successful product must be wrapped with a program that introduces the product to buyers and motivates them to buy it. Product placement in movies and shows is incredibly effective for this class of product as is celebrity seeding.
The birth of the ‘Global’
A few years back a show imagined by the creator of Star Trek called “Earth: Final Conflict” ran for a number of seasons and the key communications device was called the Global. In many ways the creators of that show accurately saw what was coming in personal devices and perhaps, in deference to them and Gene Roddenberry, we should call this new device class the Global. But, whatever we call it, it is coming like a freight train and the firm who can blend the technology from firms like Intel, with designs/services/marketing from firms like Apple, and a marketing campaign worthy of the class will likely establish itself and the next big power to beat.
Questions or comments about this column? Please e-mail Rob at renderle@enderlegroup.com or RCR Wireless News at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.
