Converge Or Perish

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The mobile phone is clearly the most converged device around. Even cheap, entry-level phones boast features such as alarm clocks and calculators, both of which were bought and sold as standalone gadgets till recently. The mobile phone has also started strangling the camera –the cheap point-and-shoot variety has already been hit by the phone’s ever-increasing prowess.

The growing number of apps are also adding to the utility of smartphones. Some of these apps enable mobile phones to double as scanners, digital wallets and business card readers as well. But the small sized screen is still an issue, which is why smartphone users have not stopped lusting after large-screen tablets. If asked which converged device will make the biggest impact in the Indian market in 2013, I would bet on the ‘phablet’ – the phone that is almost as large as a tablet.

I am not backing this large screen device just because global trends point in that direction, but also because phablets are greatvalue-for-money. The market is already flooded with phablets costing less than `10,000. Between a tablet and a phablet, the latter is an obvious choice despite its size, primarily because it also lets you make calls.

The smartphone is up to some other convergence tricks as well. Some Samsung phones can already be used to control some cameras and televisions the company makes. Rival Sony, meanwhile, lets users‘throw’ content from their Xperia phones to compatible TVs. Earlier, it was Sony which made music players an integral part of the mobile phone with its Walkman series.

ASUS’s innovative PadFone, which fused a smartphone into the rear of a tablet, could well be called the phablet’s predecessor. The convergence here was so seamless that both aspects of the device worked wonderfully well, together and individually. Peter Chang, Regional Head, South Asia, and Country Manager, ASUS India, says consumers are a step closer to off-the-shelf converged devices, thanks to the growth of innovation among both hardware and software providers.

Larger, increasingly touch-enabled screens are also bringing convergence to other devices. Almost all gadgets we use today fold in features for which they were not initially built. The TV can now play content directly without any help from VCRs or DVD players, and some cameras now have phone-like operating systems that free them from their dependence on computers. Similarly, laptops, print- ers and even music players now exceed their brief by doing stuff which would otherwise have required a completely different gadget.

The few devices that have stayed relevant on their own, such as the refrigerator and the microwave, will also soon have more intelligence and sport large screens to assimilate new features. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas recently, Samsung unveiled a fridge with a screen at the front which can run apps and even let users check email. A perfectly converged world, says Rahul Saigal, Chief Marketing Officer, Samsung India, is one in which “consumers will be in a position to lead smarter lives with all content being shared and experienced seamlessly on multiple device screens – wherever they are, whenever they want”.

The writer is Associate Editor, Gadgets & Gizmos