Mobile computing vs. Mobile living

Continuing this discussion, I’d like to bring a bit of distinction to the difference between mobile computing and mobile living.

Mobile computing devices are foreground devices. These are about Game Boys, Mobile TV, the Nokia 770, PDAs. It’s what 3G was made to serve. These are what Wireless Broadband is all about.

Mobile living devices are background devices. These are about mobile phones, iPods. These are about access to snippets of data in contacts, agenda, and to-do – what PDAs are really used for – and not email writing

Of course, it’s not a binary world and there’s a continuum, and ignoring the continuum is dangerous. For example, WAP 1.0 was mobility-only, discarding the rest of the Internet. I get worried that folks like the W3C are barking up the wrong tree, repeating the mobile-only mistakes of the past. Also, I think 3G and Wireless Broadband are about mobile computing and end up over-serving the needs of the general mobile phone user (geez, how’s the uptake been of these networks among the general mobile phone users?).

Likewise, it’s not enough to shove the PC into the mobile. There is a Usability Knee – the point at where adding more features in a certain form factor causes a tremendous drop in usability. Somewhere between phones and laptops are small tablets and palmtops, such as the Psion Series 7 that straddles the foreground and background world really well (phones into computers?). The Usability Knee analysis also suggests that there is something in devices that are single-function, very very simple.

In the end, you need to pick the one based on what you want to do – data, productivity, voice, or what. There will be no one über-device (though everyone seems to be proposing one). Heck, I’ve been advocating ‘horses-for-courses’ for years.*

What do you think?

*I found a really old article I posted about 6-7 years ago. Kinda funny flashback for me. ;-)

Comments

[Bernardo Carvalho]

That is a great distinction - the aim of mobile living devices is to be completely seamless. Maybe mobile computing devices should aim at connecting to you through the mobile living devices, through their familiar, seamless interfaces? There is a "helthy bottleneck" there - the limitations in information display of the mobile living devices should keep the mobile computing devices in control.