Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  The device that ate everything? (19 Mar 2005) Yet even as all these weird and wonderful hybrids proliferate, there will still be a role for dedicated devices. One reason, notes Paul Jackson, an analyst at Forrester Research, is that hybrids cut corners on features and component costs. A $400 camera will always outperform a $400 camera-phone in which photography is secondary to telephony. Of course, even a basic camera is better than none at all: sales of disposable film-cameras, the traditional “camera of last resort”, have stopped growing as camera-phones have proliferated. But for special occasions such as weddings or holidays, says Mr Jackson, people will still reach for a dedicated camera. Similarly, while it is handy to have a handful of favourite music tracks on your phone, that is no substitute for a dedicated player on a long journey. As well as offering superior performance, dedicated devices also tend to be easier to use than hybrids. The iPod does one thing and does it well; putting together a music playlist on a mobile phone, in contrast, is a fiddle. Separate devices also allow users to mix and match products from different vendors if they so choose. This increases choice and means there is no single point of failure. Article URL: http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3713943 Read 66 more articles from Economist sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: The future, just around the bend     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy