Converged Portable Devices To Take Off
By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 12/18/2006
Las Vegas — Nowhere is convergence more apparent than in portable digital devices.
The dedicated PDA has already been supplanted by the PDA phone. Now, MP3-playing cellphones have become commonplace, and more cellphones are capable of delivering turn-by-turn driving instructions. Meantime, cellphones are taking 2-megapixel digital pictures and streaming video and satellite- and Internet-radio channels. For their part, some portable navigation devices (PNDs) are offering portable media player (PMP) functions.
Although converged portable devices are becoming commonplace, will their impact on sales of dedicated devices be as profound as the impact of PDA phones on dedicated PDAs?
TWICE assembled a panel of marketers in the cellular, MP3, PMP and navigation fields to discuss this and other convergence issues. Panel members were asked to respond by e-mail to questions posed by TWICE. Here's what they had to say:
