Father knows best: the handset is dead

Stuart Corner
Friday, 15 February 2008 04:28

Opinion and Analysis

Mobile phones are increasingly becoming GPS and navigation devices, but the navigation device makers are fighting back, and I observed recently that a navigation device that makes phone calls might be a better bet than a cellphone 'handset that does navigation.

I have also noted the emergence of single function devices that use the cellular network but don't make voice calls: like the Kindle eBook, and the PocketSurfer2 Internet tablet, and ABI Research's prediction that the market for these and other devices could run to 90 million units over the next five years.  Very likely there will also be many more  devices that will take and make phone calls, but they won't be cellular 'handsets' as we know them today.

So where does Cooper think this is all heading? What will the 'don't-call-it-handset' device of the future look like? I wasn't fortunate enough to be to Barcelona to ask him, and none of the reports I could find were much more forthcoming.

However, one article did report him saying that he liked the iPhone and enjoys using it but it is not as good as everyone says it is. Over to you Steve Jobs!