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COMPUTING

From...
PC World

What's the next great gadget?

by Tom Spring handset device

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDG) -- Not so long ago, 3Com's now-ubiquitous Palm seemed like a pretty cool gadget for scheduling and keeping contacts.

Now a bevy of busy gadget-makers are flooding the market with digital devices that surf the Web, trade stocks, play digital music files and let you phone home. With the right gadget, you can take a call from your mother as you research the history of the Ryder Cup on the Web, while teeing off at the ninth hole.

But would you want to do that? Leading gadget makers pondered that question on Thursday at The Wall Street Journal Technology Summit.
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Representatives of cell phone maker NeoPoint, e-book publisher SoftBook Press, audio device maker Audible, and computer appliance software developer Liberate Technologies weighed in on the pros and cons of the emerging age of the computer gadget.
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Devices such as the Palm and Audible's MobilePlayer (which plays Internet-delivered audio books and prerecorded news à la popular MP3 music players) eventually will unseat the PC from its dominant role in computing, panelists predicted. But first, device makers must get the right mixes of form and function.

Device disconnect

"A lot of devices still don't make sense," admitted William Son, president and chief executive officer of NeoPoint.

"Nobody wants a phone that toasts bread," agreed Mitchell Kertzman, president and chief executive officer of Technologic Partners.

In addition, panelists said, manufacturers typically assume that customers want more functionality inside increasingly smaller devices. But the more a device can do, the harder it becomes to use.

High component costs, short battery life, and a lack of wireless bandwidth also impede growth.

Device devotion

Son believes he has found the right mix of form and function of his NeoPoint 1000. The smart phone gives you the flexibility to phone a friend, check your e-mail, or forward calls to voice mail. You can communicate when and how you want, if you want, says Son.

"People can get past the technology with these devices," noted James Sachs, chair and chief executive officer of SoftBook. "You don't have to worry about the tools, only the applications," he said.

When you pick up a SoftBook Reader, for example, you simply turn it on and it works. It is this ease of use, Sachs said, that will encourage even the staunchest Luddite to pick up a computer device.

Sachs predicted that the new gadgets will make it far easier for everyone worldwide to enter the computer world. "Just because PCs are cheaper than ever doesn't make them easier to use," he pointed out.


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Audible Inc.
Liberate Technologies
NeoPoint, Inc.
SoftBook Press, Inc.
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