Mobiles such as the iPhone 3G, Nokia N96 and Samsung Omnia have recently began retailing at astronomical prices. Is one device worth paying a sum of money at which one can buy an entry level laptop? If you look at the number of devices that converge into today’s smartphone, you will probably reply in the affirmative. And plus, a laptop cannot make calls and you cannot carry it with you all the times!
Nowadays everyone tends to prefer all in one mobiles. It is this “one device fits all” strategy that makes decision making different while buying a new mobile.
We try to help you make this decision with the Mobile Convergence Table.
| Component | Convergence | Features to check |
| Phone | Phone | User interface, Large Display, connectivity, battery life, build quality, storage |
| Multimedia | Music Player | Music Formats, Loudspeakers, Storage, A2DP |
| FM Radio | Visual Radio, RDS | |
| Video Player | Video Formats, Frames Per Second, Display Size & Resolution | |
| Gaming | 3D Playback | |
| Camera | Photos | MegaPixels, Xenon or LED Flash, Auto Focus, Macro mode, Optical Zoom |
| Video | Frames Per second | |
| Internet | Web Surfing | Large screen, 3G, Wi-fi, Browser support |
| Push mail capabilities, ability to read attachments | ||
| GPS | Navigation | Time to lock [TTL], A-GPS, Voice Navigation license, Preinstalled Maps & GPS software |
Let us interpret the Mobile Convergence Table shown above:
Column ‘Component’ :
Broad based components of a converged smartphone. Before you buy a mobile, think of each component and decide which ones are important to you. For example, if you are considering buying an iPhone 3G then you should know that even though it excels in the Multimedia & Internet sections, it performs miserably in the Camera section.
Column ‘Convergence’:
These are the various devices/functions which integrate into a single smartphone. Just think of the functionality of so many varied devices that you get in a smartphone.
In addition to these hardware related functions, the operating system along with preinstalled or third party softwares also provide the following devices within a smartphone: Alarm Clock, Calendar, Calculator, Dictionary, Voice Recorder etc.
Column ‘Features to Check’:
Based on the previous 2 columns, you would have shortlisted the components & functions that you need in your smartphone. Look out for these features of those components just to know how good the feature really is. For example, a device may have a camera. But if it’s a 1 MP camera without flash or auto-focus it isn’t really good!
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Posted by Nikhil Pai on September 14, 2008
