What would the device do? Most likely it would work first in Wi-Fi hotspots, connecting from further afield as the range of 802.11-based access points grows and other wireless networks emerge. It would probably do VoIP and IM exceedingly well. It would possibly also do email, RSS, and music. All these we can pretty much take for granted. More interestingly, it may start doing completely different things. Its ability to go where laptops can’t go, and do things that mobile phones can’t do, will create new needs and new opportunities, which make people write new apps.
Read the whole article at Zengestrom
This is basically my HTC TyTN, a bit slimmer, and without the phone capability. It’s no big deal. And the iPhone can make everything, if you exclude the physical keyboard and being close.
If instead of phone, you had XMPP with video and audio, it would change the way people would use the phone. You’d see the status of someone, and you wouldn’t have to call if that person is in a meeting, or even call someone if you see he wants to have a chat.
However this kind of change will not happen overnight. The best way is to start making child-targeting devices XMPP capable, and let them explore it and use. A bit like Danger’s sidekick it would be an icon of a generation. A full qwerty1 keyboard would give them much more power and speed to start surfing the web on their mobiles.
This is counting on carriers providing a flat fee plan that’s affordable. And that seems to take ages in Portugal.
But all these ideas are not something new. What do you feel like’s going to be the major change in the mobile phone industry in the next years?
1 A dvorak keyboard would also rule, but I know it’s kinda risky.