On comparing apples and pears

Recently, I had a long discussion with David Zucker about whether a Treo 650 or a SideKick 2 is the better smartphone. The discussion was long and heated, but we got no useful end result.

After that, I suddenly had an idea. Why do we compare two machines that are completely different. The Treo 650 is a mobile workstation, while the Sidekick 2 is a mobile multimedia machine. The Treo 650 aims to mobilize your business, while the Sidekick 2 is a “chic acceccoire” with little business value.

Of course, everybody now demands a machine that can do both-mobilize your business and be a multimedia toy. But the question is if this is desired-we don’t want a machine that does everything actually. A camera-armed machine with a loud stereo speaker system and a microphone probably isn’t gonna be very popular in an area where it is prohibited to record movies or audio(like at a prototype presentation). On the other hand, a big keyboard is totally useless when doing multimedia-it’s only in the way, gets pressed accidentaly, etc.

Overall, a do-it-all machine is a very interesting idea-but the question is if one really wants it. As said, a do-it-all machine can do everything, but it doesn’t do most of that well. A single-tasker can, in comparison, do less things, but does those really well!.

It is a matter of choice-what do you wish for?

Related posts:

1. Palm employs SideKick UI designer
2. The downfall has begun
3. News on Treo 700p and Hollywood
4. Sidekick 3, Nokia N72, N73 and N93 announced/leaked/launched
5. Kill your Treo’s antenna