Mobile Phone a Social Computer

Om gets it right that looking at the mobile phone through PC eyes is flat out wrong. I disagree with him on the point that everyone loves their mobile phone... I have yet to find one I love, here's why:

1) tapping text on a number pad sucks, or really whatever is worse than sucks.
2) gimme a decent sized display with a small form factor. Please.
3) mobile web... feghetaboutit. Unless a web page is optimized for a mobile browser it's gonna look like crap, and the heavy use of graphics ensures it won't load fast
4) connection relibility... hello? How is it that the Silicon Valley has the worst damned cell coverage of any major metro area?
5) doesn't anyone aside from myself find that fact that the speech recognition interfaces in mobile phones is crappy? If ever a device was destined for voice command, it is a mobile phone.
6) the software on most modern handsets features a bewildering array of symbols and icons in order to use the functions of the phone
7) there's no easy way to upgrade the firmware of the handset itself as new patches comes out... mobile operators are building a mobile data network and they can't even deliver upgrades to their own users?
8) the cost. Good handsets ain't cheap, it's pretty easy to spend $500 for a top line phone that has way less utility than a $500 personal computer. One positive note is that durability has improved dramatically, gone are the days when that $500 handset drops 3 feet to the ground and shatters.
9) still no embrace of wifi, and if they did then the battery life would crater.
10) $100 a month... it's hard to love paying $100 a month for something that is awkward to use for non-voice operations and because of crappy network coverage quite often doesn't work at all.

Link: Mobile Phone a Social Computer.

David Beisel is quite impressed by Trip Hawkins’ portrayal of the mobile phone as a social computer. Hawkins’ who is the founder of Digital Chocolate, a mobile gaming company is of the Silicon Valley set that came of age in the PC era. He was …

Comments

[Paul J.]

A lot of this is dependant on where you are regionally. I have to admit that a couple of issues which you bring up are non-issues in Europe due to better connectivity. Once you have a certain amount of connectivity it becomes significantly easier to like your phone. I too though do not yet "love" my phone. I could see myself soon though loving my phone and I can't live without it anymore.

[jeff]

don't get me wrong, I couldn't live without my mobile phone either.

btw, are you in Palo Alto?