Rumor has it that Google may be planning to get into the mobile phone market. The idea would be to take advantage of the Google advertising power on a small mobile device. It’s not clear how this would compete with other popular mobile devices like Blackberry, iPhone and Windows Mobile. It does seem certain that Google would attempt to embed additional mobile capabilities in a phone the competition doesn’t already have.
Unfortunately, I’m not really sure I want my cellphone to do anything more. To be perfectly honest, I would be even happier if it would do less. Isn’t the purpose of a cellphone to make phone calls? If I wanted a camera I would buy one. If I wanted a portable device for playing must I would buy one. If I wanted to send an instant text message to someone, I would log on to a computer.
In many respects, this reminds me of the integrated stereo consoles of the late 1960’s. Rather than purchase your TV seperately from your turntable, you would purchase everything in one large cabinet. It was great until one of your components either became obsolete or stopped working. With today’s technology not much has changed, after dropping my last phone there was one half that unhinged and made phone conversations particularly difficult. Needless to say, the clock on the front faceplate, however, worked just fine.
If the integrated consoles were such a good idea, we would all be using them today. The fact is, they were not a good idea and as such they have fallen into obsolesence. I don’t want my cellphone to suffer the same affliction, which is why I am still hunting eBay for my next phone – the Motorola MicroTAC.