Software Everywhere — David Beers on Mobile Computing

(...or why the closed-platform iPhone could usher in a renaissance of open-platform handheld tablets)

Updated Jan 21, 2007

I had kind of an amusing reaction when I got the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet in my hand at the end of a week dominated by the iPhone announcement and discussion. As I opened the box and was greeted by the N800's expansive screen and long, sleek lines my first thought was "wow... it looks kind of like an iPhone." My second thought: "Wasn't it just last week that I thought it looked like a PDA?" Powerful stuff, that Apple koolaid!

I wrote a few days ago about my concern that the iPhone would be a setback for mobile computing due to Apple's apparent unwillingness to let users customize it with software of their choosing. On further thought I'm less concerned. As competitors who don't share Apple's controlling instinct roll out more tablet-style phones of their own I wonder if the end result might actually be favorable for the growth of mobile application use. Whether or not a mobile phone with almost no hardware buttons turns out to be practical for the smartphone set, it's suddenly become cool in the imagination of the general public. In my experience, users of tablet-form PDAs install more software than users of smartphones running the same operating systems. While part of this may be that the customers who buy smartphones tend to be focused mainly on voice and email, another factor may very well be that expanded screen real estate makes application use a much more inviting experience. The iPhone may not be open for third party apps, but many of its less costly imitators surely will. Likewise, the tablet-style iPhone may not be ideal as a phone and messaging device, but it will sell anyway and inspire users about other possibilities for handheld computers.

In just a couple of days with the N800 tablet I've rediscovered the world of difference that 4 inches of high-resolution screen makes for application usability. The browsing experience is absolutely breathtaking: fast, full-page, zoomable viewing with Javascript, CSS, Flash, pretty much the works. Reading e-books is miles beyond anything I've experienced with a handheld device. I was even surprised to find that typing out emails with my thumbs on the big onscreen keyboard was a bit faster and about as accurate as using the keyboard on the Treo or its various knock-offs, despite the absence of tactile feedback. While Nokia's lovely tablet still lacks some needed UI refinements (especially lined up against the iPhone) its magnificent screen, Internet-optimized software and handy kickstand makes even fairly long sessions of surfing, reading, writing, or video-chatting a far more relaxing and pleasurable experience than I recall having on a smartphone. The iPhone isn't going to be able to deliver quite this screen improvement (yet!), having less than half the N800's screen resolution and 2/3 the pixel density, but its QVGA screen and apparently brilliant software are still compelling invitations to use the phone to the fullest of its capabilities. When tablet-style iPhone clones with open operating systems hit the market we may see the mobile application light start to come on in numbers that we've not seen among Moto Q and Palm Treo users. The vision that the UMPC and the Newton failed to deliver stands a chance of finally being understood by the masses.


Where I hope this all leads

What neither PDAs nor smartphones have really been able to do very well is help you keep all your valuable data, media and applications on your person all the time. Laptops, thumbdrives and web applications have all tried to fill this need, each with gaps or compromises. Another pain point that none of these mobile solutions has adequately answered is the need that many people have for taking and managing handwritten notes. Looking at the N800, which wasn't really intended to answer these problems, I can see that with the right software it could be closer than anything we've seen to date for solving them:

• It's pocketable and lightweight, so you wouldn't mind carrying it with you just about anywhere
• It runs all day on a charge, even while continuously connected to a WiFi network (which came as a big surprise to me)
• It has two SD card slots, both of which appear as removable drives when connected to a PC by USB or Bluetooth. Today that means up to 16GB of solid state storage accessible by both device and PC.
• It has an open operating system capable of running apps with desktop-like capabilities
• It has a screen big enough for those applications to be a pleasure to use. Also big enough for reasonable note-taking using electronic ink (maybe—could actually be a bit bigger, but some will accept this compromise for the pocketability)
• It pairs nicely with your Bluetooth phone when you don't have WiFi available and really need access to the network
• It's under $400—without a contract!

All that's missing are mobile and desktop companion applications (email, office doc, PIM, browser, RSS reader) that can share the mass storage on the device: the mobile version running on the device processor and screen, the desktop version running on the PC processor and screen when the device is connected to it.

If Nokia can get this close to solving the pressing need for an always-on-you personal computing environment without even really trying, how far off can we be from someone integrating the software that brings it all together? While the N800 is unlikely of itself to break out of its targeted niche and start a mobile revolution, the iPhone is another story. Despite the flaw of its closed design and protests from Jobs that the iPhone is not a computer, I've come around to thinking that it will play an indirect but important role in shaping the mobile computing vision in the public imagination.

In short, I'm watching for this chain of events:

closed iPhone --> touchscreen fashion --> open-platform competition --> new tablet device categories (finally) catch on