Let’s talk about Apple’s iPhone for a minute. From everything I’ve seen, it looks to be an incredible piece of technology. It’s going to shift paradigms, reinvent wheels, think outside of boxes, blah blah blah. It’s still calling itself a phone, and I think that’s a mistake.
While climbing down Masada, Bonnie and I indulged ourselves in an extended conversation on mobile devices, from cell phones to PDAs to Smartphones. We agreed (!) that Smartphones (like the Blackberry and Sony Treo) demonstrate the current generation’s obsession with “always on” internet tech, and that all modern mobile tech is heading toward the same eventual conclusion: the ubiquitous portable device.
This device is best compared to the portable Knowledge Navigators in Serial Experiments: Lain — devices that are, interestingly enough, based somewhat on the Apple Newton. Our conversation on Masada turned out to be quite topical, as Steve Jobs would announce the iPhone several days later. The iPhone very closely resembles the ubiquitous portable that I’m predicting, except that it seems reluctant to call itself anything other than a phone. And “phone,” in my opinion, is a very limited — and limiting — nomenclature.
I understand that it’s a marketing strategy. Everybody wants a phone; not very many people want portable NAVI’s, but the result of the iPhone’s branding is that it by itself won’t kill the idea of the phone. I’m in a bit of a gray area, so let me be clear: our future is in devices that connect us, without prejudice toward any one type of connection. These devices can do audio, but they do text as well, and images, as well as other forms of data, and there’s no emphasis on one form of communication over another. The iPhone reinforces the notion that phones are the center of communication, rather than expanding our understanding of what communication is.
I’m sure Apple still has a few tricks up its sleeve regarding its newest family member. We’ll see what comes our way before June. I’ll be a happy Scott Jon if, in the next ten years, we can retire the word “phone” from our daily vocabulary.