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'ALL-IN ONES'
NOT ONE FOR ALL
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By Bill Beggs Jr.
Let’s assume you’ve been operating “paperless” for a while. You might have a cell phone, a personal data assistant, and a laptop. Since you don’t have three hands, wouldn’t it be nice if somebody combined the functions of all these devices into one piece of hardware?
Good news...somebody has. The first generation of convergence, or “all-in-one,” devices is here.
Ironically, given that these units replace many separate gadgets, finding the right brand and model is not as easy as you might think. “It’s definitely not a ‘one size fits all’ device,” says Jason Gatewood, a salesman for Wireless Retail at Best Buy. Indeed, the menu list of available features in a convergence device is long: Web browsing (color or black-and-white), cellular phone service, paging, messaging services, e-mail, MP3 player, digital camera, embedded GPS chips, and various handheld software packages.
BlackBerry, a popular brand from Research in Motion, is available in over a dozen models, with prices varying between $199 and $599. Similarly, the Treo 600—another popular brand made by palmOne—can be purchased for $699. Both can be bought for less by signing up to certain cellular activation plans.
Which brings up an important point: hardware is just the beginning of your expenses. All this flexibility takes monthly fees for e-mail and Internet access, as well as cellular airtime charges. For people with months remaining on their current service plans, switching might be a costly proposition.
But for people like Betsy Humphreys, a senior technical director at SBC, the freedom is well worth the expense. “It keeps me sane,” says Humphreys, who recently upgraded to a new BlackBerry. As an employee of the phone giant since 1983, she has seen many telecom trends and toys come and go in 21 years. By combining her cell phone and PDA into one unit, she stands to save about $50 a month. She also steered clear of the beautiful new color screen and chose the black-and-white model—for an up-front savings of over $100.
Unlike Humphreys, who spends most workdays at One Bell Center downtown, Christopher Alt and his BlackBerry spend nearly half their time away in Mexico, Central America and China. Alt’s main gripe centers on poor reception in some rural areas (the same complaint cell phone users have had since time began). But Alt believes the bells and whistles will continuously be added as the technology evolves.
Gatewood agrees: “The next best thing is around the corner.”
Bill Beggs Jr. is a St. Louis-based freelance writer. |
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