Will iPod Be the One Thing?
The iPod is more popular than ever with the release of Windows iTunes. This announcement from Toshiba is amazing: "Additionally, Toshiba said it is also considering production of 1-inch drives. Such drives are small enough to be encased in a CompactFlash card form factor."
I was thinking about cell phones, palm pilots, GPS, and wallets (credit cards, money, photos, i.d.s) Surely it will all converge into a single thing and that thing could be an iPod. Apple has built a method of keeping large data files easily updated on your "thing". That includes music and photos. (People carry photos in their wallets.)
They've got address and calendar info updating via iSync like a Palm. How hard can it be to stick a phone and some GPS in there?
None of this bodes well for checks, but my Apple stock should go up.
Comments
There are already Palm/cell phones. Since Palms support mp3's then why not add one of those tiny hard drives and GPS? Maybe the Palm is the device. And if it is, the Tungsten 3 is awfully nice . . .
Credit cards should be done away with. Why not just use your thumbprint to validate who you are and then let you pull up a list of credit and debit accounts to draw from? You should never have to carry a card.
Of course some people may not want their fingerprint being scanned all the time (like the government doesn't already have it) since you can't change it. In that case an implanted chip might work though I guess those could be forged (not easily since you'd have to give up your own chip and then have another one installed; and it's not like you could walk around with ten different chips like you can with stolen credit cards). The data would be in some central place and by scanning the chip you could buy stuff, check out library books, get medical treatment, open doors at work and home, start your car, etc. When the apocaplypse comes and Muslim extremists take over the world you could just have the chip removed.
Posted by: UT | November 11, 2003 12:43 PM
Steve Jobs said that two players will end up distributing music: Microsoft and Apple. He likes to make big sweeping statements like that. He's right in the sense that both companies are focused on synchronizing large chunks of data across the internet. Windows is focused on security patches and software updates. Apple is doing some of that, but is focused on the collection and synchronization of personal information: music, photos, home movies, calendars, addresses, and documents.
Why can't I key my cellphone directory in on Verizon.com and in synch up? Why can't I see the real-time minutes I've used? No real data network, that's why.
It will be synching the stuff on the thing more than the thing that is critical. Microsoft and Apple are so far ahead of anyone else on moving massive volumes of data around securely, not sure how anyone else will catch up. And Apple's focus is personal data.
Posted by: Jeb | November 11, 2003 10:15 PM