Five Devices Killed by Cellphones

[exfileme]

Did cellphones kill the camera and the MP3 player? Probably not, but it's still fun to speculate why mobile devices are taking over the world.

Five Devices Killed by Cellphones : Read more

 

[runswindows95]

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I still have a land line and refuse to get rid of it. The reason is when Hurricane Wilma came through South Florida, my land line was the last phone working. All the major cell providers went down. I never use it, but it's nice to know I can make calls if another disaster strikes.

 

[Pei-chen]

Cellphone cameras are limited by the law of physics. Unless Steve Job is God and changed the law of physics, I don't see camera being replaced.

Note: stupid Mac user might end up killing the P&S camera if they thought their iPhone picture looks better.

 

[AlexMartin]

Owning a cellphone has become a trend, but if we don't count PDAs I don't see devices being replaced.
Photo quality of camera phones is lousy and indeed the battery capacity is a big problem.
The iPhone is great, but is more a fashion product that a necessity.

 

[teh_boxzor]

Lame... yahoo posted this on their homepage a couple of days ago.

 

[Doomedelite]

My BlackBerry is the best damn MP3 player I can think of, for one simple reason.
I can download songs from my FTP using PaderSyncFTP, which means that I can simply delete old songs, then download new ones on the fly!

 

[hellwig]

[citation][nom]Doomedelite[/nom]My BlackBerry is the best damn MP3 player I can think of, for one simple reason.I can download songs from my FTP using PaderSyncFTP, which means that I can simply delete old songs, then download new ones on the fly![/citation]

Now you've done it, setting up a personal FTP server to download songs on the fly. I'm sure the RIAA is this very minute figuring out how they can sue the crap out of you. First they'll hack into your server and download a file. Then they'll slap you with a suit saying you were knowingly, willfully and criminally distributing their copyrighted works.

 

[mdillenbeck]

Which type of devices are we talking about replacing - the consumer quality versions of these devices, or the professional quality version of these devices?

I can easily see the typical consumer ditching their tiny portable cameras, MP3 players, and so forth for an all-in-one device with a couple of extra batteries. They go for convenience.

However, businesses and professionals will not. They go for quality, because their customers expect it.

 

[lukeiamyourfather]

I'm only half on board with the notion. Cell phones have replaced my wrist watch and line phone, but hardly the camera or music player. Most phones have absolutely horrible cameras and even worse music capabilities.

 

[gm0n3y]

Cell phones will most definitely replace the cheapo digital cameras on the market. My cheap 3Mpixel Cannon that I bought 3 or so years ago takes terrible photos. I would consider them to be about the same quality as the iPhone photos. So while cell phones won't replace higher end prosumer models, they will certainly take the place of the cheap ones.

As for MP3 players, once flash capacities get to 100GB+ for a cell phone and battery life increases by 4x or so, the standalone MP3 player will be pretty useless. That will take maybe another 4 years.

The land line phone has been dying for a long time. I can only think of 1 person I know that's under 30 that has a landline.

This article fails to mention the pay phone. These are almost dead already. Too bad though, they're nice to have around if your cell dies.

 

[teldar]

I for one am going to stick up for the PDA. While I was looking for a new smart phone, i decided I would just get a nice cell phone and keep the ol' PDA. If I weren't in school, I'd go out and buy the new HP.
There's something to be said for a 4" screen instead of 1.8. And the increased memory and processor speed are nice for looking through programs.

Of course I'm in grad school in the medical field and actually would like to run a few more programs than what the cell phone would run nicely. It's just too hard to read all that text on that tiny screen.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

"The same goes for any kind of built-in camera: while they’re useful in quick situations, cellphone cameras aren’t exactly the ideal device for family snapshots or detailed vacation highlights."
I don't agree with that! By far the feature I use most on my n73 is the camera. I hardly ever use it to call anyone. I use the camera, and I use it to watch small video clips from the little sd card.
In fact when I got the n73 I threw my old agfa camera away, cause the phone made better photos and is always around when I need it.

My best friend's got this expensive nikon or something camera with a huge lense to do really nice stuff - but he hardly ever uses it, cause it's so big and unhandy - he uses his sony phone for stuff like vacation and family shots