Smart phones might not be as clever as they look
Smart phones might not be as clever as they look
Smart phones, which are being touted as the complete convergence office mobile system, might be becoming more popular due to their look than their actual business capabilities, according to Gartner Australia.
Phones, such as the Palm's Treo 600 and the Motorola MPx200, which are expected to pick up massively in sales soon in Australia, boast of being the complete multi-media package, boasting a Microsoft Windows Mobile powered system that has the capability of a desktop computer in the palm of your hand.
The systems have the ability to run the internet, video clips, digital photos, email and other documents which are easily accessible with desktops.
However, Robin Simpson, research director of mobiles and wireless technology at Gartner Australia said that although the smart phones are very useful for some things, they are not the complete conversion solution for office workers. "It depends which office job you do, but the smart phones are a bit too much of a compromise at the moment to be capable of supporting all of the office applications you need to work on away from the office. People seem to be rushing to buy them because they seem new and fashionable.
"A system such as the BlackBerry 7700 series or PDAs are more useful as conversion tools, because they have bigger keyboard spaces and screens, which is where the smart phones fall down. Sure, the smart phone is useful for receiving emails and keeping tack of your calendar, but the functionality is limited in terms of developing work away from the office on the systems.
"The smart phone makes good use out of voice recognition, but this doesn't really cut it in the data entry environment. I can't see voice recognition doing away with the keyboard in the future."
Although Simpson believes that smart phones have a limited use for certain office requirements, he added that some people prefer to use all three different types of devices to complete their office tasks outside of work. He believes that the PDAs are the most robust devices and are better placed to develop more software platforms than the smart phone or BlackBerry.
However, he does not see the smart phone as becoming the complete convergence tool is billed up to in the near future. "The phone market is driven by consumer choice, and principally by fashion, and there is too much compromise over screen size and data entry capability. So it's an ideal that everybody thinks would be wonderful, but is pretty difficult to do and we are not quite there yet."
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