Software Everywhere — David Beers on Mobile Computing

Long time no post. It's been one of those crazy between-project times when you've got a dozen opportunities swarming around you like a cloud of gnats and, if you're like me, you can't wait to get back into the flow state, focused on one project. You'd think spending the day mapping the forest instead of staring at one tree would be conducive to blogging, but it's not. I have a theory, but I won't bore you with it.

In my last few posts I've been talking about mobile computing as the future of personal computing, with a lot of focus on Palm. I talk a lot about Palm on this site and before I continue I want to explain why. It's not because I'm completely bullish on the company's prospects—they've got a hard battle to fight in a market with some fierce competitors. Nor does my company make money from selling Palm devices (though we often recommend them to customers) and we create plenty of software for platforms like RIM, Windows Mobile and Java ME. I can't say that my interest in these guys isn't tinged by a bit of nostalgia. I cut my chops on developing for handheld devices on Palm OS. My first mobile application—a primitive blogging tool—was written, compiled and debugged with a stylus on a Handspring Visor during my commutes on public transportation to and from my job as a web developer in Houston. But that's not the reason I write about them in this blog. And, God knows, it's not because Palm is out on the bleeding edge of technology.

My interest in Palm is because they are still willing to listen to the guy with the most audacious vision for mobile technology around: Jeff Hawkins (to the shareholders' dismay) doesn't seem to care much about making smartphones iPhone-cool; he cares about a crazy idea of liberating people from their desktop and turning the devices in their pockets into their primary PC. For Hawkins (and to the gearhead's dismay) realizing that vision has more to do with holding products to a high standard of simplicity than adding features. In my view, Palm's greatest shortcoming in recent years has been a failure to simplify smartphones enough. The upcoming Foleo, to its credit, bears the imprint of the old Palm's focus on helping people do a few things simply and quickly rather than burying them with features that are hard or slow to access. This attitude looks like backwardness to some, but I agree with Hawkins that for people to start seeing their mobile devices as platforms for running useful applications the biggest challenge is not breaking technological barriers, but breaking down the barrier of "fundamental complexity" in computers. Any company can take a bunch of engineers and a big pile of carrier requirements and build a smartphone that's complex. How do you make mobile computers that people want to use as such? Whether they conquer that challenge or not, Palm takes it more seriously than anyone else.

But they're not alone in touting the vision of your mobile becoming the new PC. Not any more. Next post I want to talk about Nokia. It's still a little early to say, but there are hints that they have an idea very different from Palm of how this vision could come about, and I think the comparison is pretty interesting. Also, if anyone has a really long attention span and recalls me promising some wild speculations about how Jeff Hawkins might see mobile computing in a decade or so, well, I'll be getting to that, too, because I can't help myself. I think the Nokia/Palm comparison will be a good lead-in to that. Not trying to be dramatic... I just never have as much time to write as I need.