Mobile device manufactures just don't get it

Really, the people designing mobile devices just don't get it. They keep churning out the same fixed function, limited lifetime devices with no upgrade path over and over again. I mean I ask you, how long has Bluetooth been around? Years! At least four I'll guess. And how long has it taken for them to utilize Bluetooth for anything other than cordless headsets? Almost as long.

Finally someone has come out with a bluetooth keyboard for mobile devices. But guess what, it doesn't work with regular phones, those devices most in need of a bluetooth keyboard, only PocketPC and SmartPhone devices. Your average phone with a 0-9 *# keypad these days often has a lot of CPU and memory going to waste and even a screen with more resolution than early Palm PDAs. That kind of phone is crying out for a proper keypad but not one that make the device so huge its inconvenient, and not one with keys so small you need a toothpick to use it.

And then there's the bluetooth ringer... Just how many times have you put your phone into vibrate mode and stuffed it in a pocket or bag at a movie and then promptly forgotten about it? Then several days later you discover your phone with half a dozen missed calls and everyone thinks you're out of town. Furthermore when you try to call your phone to figure out where it is its buzzing almost silently in the closet somewhere and you can't find it.

So how about a bluetooth ringer with a caller id display and answer/ignore button. Then strap it to your wrist or hang it around your neck and when you put your phone in vibrate mode you'll never miss the opportunity to call. To avoid the lost (or stolen!) phone problem the ringer alerts you to losing contact with its host phone so you know you're moving too far away or the phone is walking away...

Going even further for the geeks out there - just build such a feature into a watch. Because its just a ringer, 10 digit display and a few buttons and not an entire watch it doesn't have to be big, hefty and ugly like that Microsoft flop, the ....

Low and behold it does appear someone finally has their thinking cap on - Seiko - who are rumoured to be creating such a device. My guess is that they will quickly become very popular. Unfortunately Sieko's prototypes so far look to be, well nothing short of butt-ugly...

However all these things are just specific instances of the general problem. There is nothing fancy about a phone. A phone is really just a little piece of hardware containing a radio transmitter. Its entirely possible to put one in a compact flash sized package. All the rest of the crap doesn't need to be in the "phone" at all. Keyboard, display, memory, camera, "pda", MP3 player etc. can all just utilize the radio link provided by the "phone" radio via Bluetooth.

What people really need is a tiny pocket server with a CPU, bluetooth host, and a modest amount of RAM and permanent storage plus a decent power system. Then you need a physical system that allows all the other components to attach Lego-like to the mother system. When attached to the mother system they can suck down power from the main battery to recharge, tapping into any PSU that mother system is connected to. When detached they use thier own internal battery power and communicate with the mother system via Bluetooth.

Then device manufacturers can really start to innovate and consumers can really start to benefit. No more will people have to decide if they need a phone with camera, or a PDA with a camera, or a separate camera and a phone, or a PDA a camera and a phone. Not to mention all the possibilities with an MP3 player...

Now they can have a mother devices, a phone unit, PDA sized keyboard, minature and larger display, a minature keyboard for dialing, a music player, a storage drive, a headset, a minature camera and a fullsized camera. And guess what? They'll all work together. The cameras can send pictures over the phone or store them to the permanent storage. The MP3 player can stream music over the phone, or load it from storage. The keypads can access the mother device and make it appear like a PDA accessing whatever storage and output devices are available.

All the pieces will seemlessly fit together perhaps using some "mobile PCI" standard or whatever is appropriate. Given the ability of USB to stream a lot of data over very few wires it seems like a electrical bus based on USB wouldn't be that bad. Then all you need is some lovely industrial design as found in Apple systems.

How about making all the building blocks all magnetic so they just stick together? With extreme proximity maybe there is no need for any physical data bus connection between them at all - just Bluetooth with a higher data rate. Perhaps optional power connections for blocks requiring a recharge from an external source so no matter how many devices you have your only need one adapter and one plug to charge any and all of them. Yay!

This to me is the ultimate mobile device and put an end to closed, proprietary platforms that force consumers to buy multiple devices and upgrade a whole bunch of technology every time some new mobile gadget or radio technology comes along. Now you can just upgrade the phone radio, keypad, screen or storage completely independently.

It remains to be seen how long it will be before someone else "gets it" and figures out the packaging issues. Until then I guess you could synthesize something similar using a PDA style device without a display but with lot of SDIO Now! or CompactFlash slots. After all if you can get an entire 802.11b radio and 256Mb, or a GPRS receiver, or 2Gb of storage in one of those cards then there's not much you can't.

So to summarize: the mother device contains CPU, RAM, bluetooth radio, plus a small amount of non-volatile storage. Optionally it could have a small LCD display and a few buttons that could be shared by all devices too small or dumb to use a fancier display or keypad. They become the default input and output if no other display or keyboard is available. The battery, display, larger keyboards, network devices, screens, mass storage (1Gb and up), cameras, finger print readers, audio procesing (for MP3) and all that other good stuff are all separate, connectable and bluetooth enabled.

Needless to say the mother device runs some really clever software to sync and protect all data within its "mobile domain". If a wireless radio is available it can go out over a secure internet connection and trickle sync with an external system. Perhaps downloading your favourite blogs on the fly while it backs up your latest photos and phone numbers...

Make it so!