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by Russell Beattie.
Original Post: Newsweek: right idea, wrong article
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I think it's amusing how the American media continue to look to Palm (One/Source) for guidance when it comes to mobile technologies. Newsweek has an article this week on your mobile phone becoming your next computer. Anyone who's had the Epiphany knows that this is obviously the case, but in order to justify this thought the reporter calls (who else) Jeff Hawkins: The annointed American expert on mobile technology.
No matter that HandSpring and Palm have sold about what? A million handsets total? (They're selling about 175,000 handsets a quarter the last I saw). That they have *one* phone with what is essentially a proprietary not to mention antiquated operating system and that companies like Nokia and Motorala are selling literally 100 times as many handsets as Palm and easy 10 times as many "smart phones." If Newsweek wanted an American take on things, why don't they call someone at Motorola? I mean, the article gives examples of Nokia phones finding each other and of Moto's new MPX phone with full keyboard, but call Jeff for quotes. Wacky. Just another example of American media not really getting mobile tech just yet and trying to pre-announce American greatness in this area I think. I have no doubt in my mind that American companies will eventually be the masters of all mobile technology (sorry Nokia, Samsung, et. al.) but right now that's just not the case. There's more to learn right now from a journalist doing his job and talking to the international companies who are on the cutting edge of this tech, not to someone who's fame is repurposing a 1997 organizer device for mobile phones. Christ, even Microsoft has a better grasp of mobile phones than Palm (though I loathe to say it).
And that brings up something else, MS is conspicuously absent from the article. I mean, if the phone is going to replace the PC, won't they have something to say about it? Really, except for the picture above, it's really just badly researched and badly written article. If I hadn't typed this much I'd probably erase this post about it. :-)
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