Pointing Out the Obvious...

Here's what I want: a three-tiered mobile technology solution: 1. Smartphone with full-sized touch screen and double-thumbable keyboard. 2. Bluetooth headset. 3. Bluetooth-connected wrist watch with screen as big as the face.

Here's the rationale:

1. Smartphones are the new business machines. As Motorola and HTC (and not Apple) have realized, smartphones need keyboards because we're actually writing Great American Novels on them. The better the keyboard, the more often a person will leave the house without their laptop.

2. While the intensive tasks require a large touchscreen an a keyboard (iPhone users may disagree, but only because they don't know what they're missing), not every task is intensive. Sometimes you just need to read a text, check the subject line of an email, see calendar updates, and navigate your address book. Warming up the a smartphone's whole screen uses an unnecessary amount of power.

3. A good keyboard corresponds to a good-sized screen. Both correspond with a rather large device. Large devices end up out of reach- deep in pockets.

4. Bluetooth headsets are essential for making smartphones viable as mobile productivity stations. A person needs to be able to juggle apps- text, email, maps, search, address books- while talking. A headset allows a person to use their smartphone in front of them, instead of up to their ear, or on speakerphone. Bluetooth is also safer, since we all talk while driving. If you don't already have one, get one. They're not expensive.

5. Bluetooth headsets don't need to be worn constantly. They're uncomfortable, and they look funny. Headsets are often somewhere else. I often put mine in a coat pocket. Finding it again takes time. I often turn the Blue off, the speakerphone on, find the Blue, and then turn it back on again. Obviously, I'd rather this be simpler.

6. Many of us use to wear watches just to keep track of time. Many of us don't wear watches because our cellphones tell us what time it is. And wristwatches haven't developed much. For instance, you can still spend $40 on a calculator watch by Casio that is essentially identical to ones they made 20 years ago. That's abysmal. Is there any wonder that wristwatches have become fashion items?

7. There is currently no way to put everything you need into a wristwatch-sized case. However, if all you needed to do was put a screen, a battery, a transceiver, and a minimally powerful processor- that's all very doable. Using a smartphone as the main source, and a high resolution wristwatch screen (think iPod Nano), you could even watch Hulu (eventually) or at least Youtube.

8. We need a better place to keep our headsets when they're not in use. I'm imagining a Bluetooth headset that clips onto the side of your wristwatch. Call comes in, your watch alerts you. You remove the headset, insert it into your ear, and your smartphone stays in your pocket the whole time. Or, a text comes in. You read it on your watch, remove the headset, and call the person directly- smartphone never leaves the pocket. Or, call comes in, you take it on the headset, and then- as you're talking, you get your smartphone out and use it to search for a phone number in an email. As soon as you find it, you hit the button for "send to watch." You immediately turn off the big energy-sucking screen on your phone.

9. If smartphones didn't have such short battery lives, we'd use them for more things. We might actually use them as mp3 players. As it is, that is very often a separate device. The only people I know that play music on their phones are teenagers. They don't necessarily have multiple devices. Either that or they really like listening to music. Music navigation could easily be managed on a watch.

10. It occurs to me that the next iPhone will probably have a Pixel Qi screen, enabling a 50% increase in battery life. That's probably what will be announced at MacWorld in February. It'll be an eReader, iPod, iPhone, mini-tablet PC alternative. Because really, what we need are devices that can be used for everything we need them for, and are always before us- but not in our way when we don't need them- and have enough battery power to survive 12 hours of heavy use.

11. Is a a wristwatch likely to appeal to enough people to make it viable? Yes. Here's why: smartphones are starting to all look alike. It's time to make a slightly bigger smartphone- bigger screen, better keyboard- and keep it in your pocket. Smartphone becomes tiny netbook. Wristwatch becomes tiny smartphone.

12. And that's all I have to say.