1SRC Editorial: A Bold New Vision

This week's 1SRC Editorial, A Bold New Vision, has been posted.

With product coming to the market like Palm’s Foleo Mobile Companion I wonder if these devices are the first steps in a new computing paradigm or just the latest in a long line of must have “toys.”

From the beginning, Palm has been about mobile computing. Company founder Jeff Hawkins has always said that the future of computing was mobile computing. I recall reading about new technologies that would allow us to have instant access to our data wherever we go early in my IT career. With the rapid rate of change in the technology field, I find myself looking at the devices that we have today and trying to figure out where we are going to be five to ten years down the road.

There are a few things that I see in today’s market that makes me think that we are about to see a shift in how we approach our day-to-day computing. The first is that notebook computer sales are out pacing the sales of desktop models. People no longer want to be tied to their desks when they want to get something done with a computer. Secondly smartphones are finally starting to get some sales traction here in the United States. You can thank the iPhone for that. (Many of the new iPhone users are feature phone users who have traded in their flip phones.) While still insanely over priced, OQO’s model 02 mobile computer is a very intriguing product that I think is three to five years too early to market, and yet, OQO’s vision is very much in line with where I see things progressing to.

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