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Story: Microsoft CTO lauds BlackBerry, iPod

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With apologies to Mr. Chandler, I believe you missed the whole point of the discussion. While it may be possible one day to have devices that "do it all," for a great many people, this is not the preferred outcome. I am with the MS CTO: I carry a PDA, a phone, an iPod, a camera - whatever I will be using. Most days I leave the good camera at home, but I have a smaller one (better than any phone or PDA cam I have seen to date) in my bag. It's not much larger than a mint tin, but takes great pictures - which is what cameras are for.

I have a workmate who just shelled out over $600US for a Treo 650. It is a PDA cum phone cum camera cum laser pistol. The keys are so tiny that it's not really good for taking notes. The sound and reception are far worse than the Siemens S56 (which I got free with my phone contract), and the camera quality is less than half of what my tiny Minolta x20 will do. All told, I paid less than he did for my kit, and the only trade-off is my bag has more items and is a bit heavier. When he takes too many notes, he endangers his phone's ability to make and answer calls. I can take notes on my Tungsten|C (complete with WiFi) for hours and never compromise my phone's battery life (which, after 18 months, is already double the life of the brand-new Treo).

The day may come when I will agree that a single device can handle everything, but that day is far, far away. We'll see flying cars, ubiquitous computers a la Star Trek, and phones the size of cuff links before power and reception and usability can all be had from one device. But, in many work environments, I think there will still be an argument for separate devices, even though we will be able to do it. This goes back to the article's train versus automobile analogy. You may, in your work style, desire convergence. Great. Buy a Treo. There are many others who do not hare your desire for a single device, and a wise market will product products for them as well. I have no problem with people who want converged devices. I have a problem with those people saying that no one can have separate devices, because convergence is how it must be. It's not one way or the other, it's both/and.

Saying "Handheld devices must converge full PC functionality with phone technology. Carrying around a PDA and a phone is just not acceptable" as a demand for a market direction is leaving out that other segment of the market. Demanding convergence to the exclusion of discrete devices is not just short sighted - it's just plain wrong.

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