You don’t need to wave a
magic wand to capitalize
on the hordes of mobile
devices that are on
the market these days.
They’ve become bright
spots in a wobbly consumer
electronics industry
as buyers look for new bargains.
In many instances, the cutting edge, such
as the iPhone and Kindle, still carries a premium
price. But the potential of lower-cost
alternatives as well as the functionality provided
by these new platforms is driving interest.
They’re also opening doors to different
markets and opportunities.
What’s really confusing is the range of
names attached to today’s devices. For example,
are netbooks like the 2.28-lb Dell Mini
9 little laptops (Fig. 1)? Are mini-laptops like
Samsung’s thin NC20 with a 12.1-in. screen
really netbooks (Fig. 2)? Are ultra-mobile
PCs (UMPCs) dead or just another form of
netbook? Are netbooks also e-books? Are
e-books only for reading books? Are they all
mobile internet devices (MIDs) like the Archos
Internet Media Tablets (Fig. 3; see “Archos 7
Mobile Video Player”)? And can any of these gadgets complement,
augment, or replace a cell
phone, telephone, or Internet
phone?
I won’t make any proclamations here.
Rather, I’ll try to explain the range of options
and technologies being employed. It’s a very
exciting time akin to the emergence of the
PC because designers and users are trying
to use these tools in places they weren’t
intended.
The variety of options when it comes to
design is significant. Designers can choose
flash memory or hard-disk drives, or both.
There is a cornucopia of processors to pick
from. Even display options are growing, not to
mention finger pointing.
FINGER POINTING
So what are some of the more intriguing
trends as these products hit the market?
One is keyboard size. Myriad netbooks, MIDs,
and other mobile devices have come out with
smaller versions of the standard-size keyboard,
though they haven’t been too successful
for devices designed to replace a laptop.
This is one reason why netbooks are turning
into little laptops with at least 10-in. screens
and real keyboards to match.
It all has to do with the average size of
the adult finger, which affects more than
keyboards. It’s equally applicable to touchscreens,
as highlighted by the Apple iPhone.
One of the challenges faced by UMPC vendors
was that a stylus often had to be used
to match the small menus presented by PC
applications. Functions may have been workable
with the stylus, but utterly impractical for
any normal size finger.
This is actually a two-part problem: hardware
and software. Features such as multitouch
where multiple fingers can hit the
screen at the same time are addressing the
hardware side. The iPhone interface shows
how this is an advantage rather than a problem,
but it required a significant effort on the
software side.
SHAKE, RATTLE, AND ROLL
Another key (pun intended) input parameter
comes from accelerometers, which are quickly moving from anomalies in implementation
to standard fare in mobile devices. Falling
prices, improved performance, and more digital
implementations like Freescale’s MMA7660FC
3D accelerometer (see “Accelerometers Shake
Up The Old Ways To Play”) make alternate
input scenarios such as shaking, tapping,
or turning a device common (Fig. 4).
Again, the software must exploit
this feature. The challenge is coming
up with standard frameworks so
application developers don’t have to incorporate
device-specific code to take advantage of
these features.
This isn’t to say that small keyboards or
even on-screen keyboards aren’t a viable alternative.
Rather, the primary applications for a
device must not place heavy requirements on
a keyboard. For example, a short response
to an e-mail is manageable on a small or
onscreen keyboard. Word processing places
heavy demands on a keyboard, but not so with
editing and annotating. The trick often is not to
preserve the keyboard as some tablets or cell
phones have. Instead, figure out how to provide
alternatives with unique designs.
FOLD, SPINDLE, MUTILATE?
Keyboards also have had an effect on alternate
form factors. The Always Innovating Touch
Pad, an OMAP3530-based netbook, turns into
a touchpad by simply separating the keyboard
from the display (Fig. 5). For most laptops and
netbooks, the processing and storage guts are
under the keyboard. Always Innovating ignored
conventional wisdom and placed them behind
the display.
This change of design does present some
interesting implications. For example, the power
and peripheral connections such as USB are
found on the perimeter of the display. The
system is still fully operational with its touchscreen
interface.
E-Ink’s displays have made e-books possible,
but their flexible nature can also release
designers from conventional constraints.
Polymer Vision’s Readius rolls
the display up into a very compact package
that’s about the size of a cell phone instead of
a typical e-book or compact tablet (Fig. 6). Its
expanding plastic frame holds the display rigid
during use.
Unlike LCDs that must be rigid, the E-Ink
displays are created in rolls, so it’s not too difficult
to imagine even larger rollable displays.
Larger displays are already being delivered,
like Amazon’s Kindle DX and Sony’s PRS-700.
These devices can handle newspaper and
textbook presentations, which tend to be a challenge
for their smaller-screen predecessors (see
“Hot Cellular Market Can’t Escape Icy Economic
Winds”).
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