ZD Net Blogs: Convergence a Good Idea?
ZD Net blogger Adrian Kingsley-Hughes put up a post yesterday questioning whether or not all-in-one gadgets are really a good idea. His point is that all-in-one gadgets tend to be like jacks of all trades: able to everything without being good at anything, which is certainly a valid point to be made at the current attempts at convergence.
Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I have a thing for convergence, mainly because I carry around enough gadgets at this point that I'd like to be able to reduce the clutter. Technically, that would make Kingsley-Hughes's post heresy of the highest order. However, here's the thing: when I talk about the glories of all-in-one, I don't mean the current, flawed attempts that try to please everyone and end up satisfying (almost) no one. I'm thinking of a bright and somewhat distant future, where the technology of combination will be so good that we can put together mp3 players and cell phones and GPS devices and email and whatever else without the problems that plague these sorts of devices today. It might be an impossible future, but I'm looking forward to it none the less.
