It's easy to be awed by iPhones, Blackberry's and other smartphones these days, thinking they're the pinnacle of mobile achievement? But then compared to their predecessors, it may be that we've just reached our first base camp on the way to the smart phone summit. I got thinking about this today and saw these parallels:
- Original mobile phones 1980s to mid 1990s compare to 1950-1970 computers and mainframes: they were bulky, power hungry, were mostly considered a luxury
- Mid 1990s to late 2000s phones to 1980s original personal computers: they were both now small enough and widespread to drive the price down. But they were very much still 1 trick ponys. Cell phones could make calls. PCs were running very simple apps, and of course running only 1 at a time. I particularly remember the Compaq 386 the publishing company I was working for at the time ordered for the sales accounting use only. I was so jealous of that machine. But it was mostly used as a souped up basis for Lotus 1-2-3.
- First 1/2 of 2000s phones to early 1990s PCs, prior and the early days of Windows 3.1: PC games, educational utilities, and specialized applications had been around for a while at this point. But if you looked at how people were actually using their PCs, especially in the office and very few people had a home PC at that time, they were running WordPerfect and 1-2-3 (soon to be replaced by Word and Excel).
- The current crop of mobile phones: DOS 6.0 and 6.2X were of course the end of the line for DOS. At the time, Windows versions still required an underlying DOS install and license, OS/2 was dying, and people in the Windows camp were starting to wait for the major advances Windows "Chicago" or Windows 4 would bring us. Connecting to the internet was a pain with a 3rd party TCP/IP stack. But PCs pretty much did what the masses expected them to which had evolved to add some more spiffy gaming, basic messaging although most email/messaging platforms that most people had access to were closed systems. Throw in PowerPoint, Word, and Excel, and most PC users were covered. Most users had no idea what the next few years would bring with widespread internet use, instant messaging, rapidly increasing bandwidth, and all of the ups and downs that came with it.
That's where I think we are with iPhones and Blackberrys today. They're starting to hint at what might be the next giant leap forward. And you might say "but Iphones and blackberrys have web browsers and can install any app" or "the palm pre can run multiple applications." All that's really saying though is that your mobile hone/smart phone now functions like you expect a PC to, except in tiny little mobile package. We haven't had a Tim Berners-Lee for the SmartPhone who brought a whole new vision to the smartphone. But I think we're close.
I wish I could say what that is that's missing. Of course if I new that, I'd probably be busy writing a business plan instead of this blog post.
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