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There has been tremendous hype this past week about the new iPhone, which apparently can do all sorts of things. The problem for me is that I do not want a phone that does all of that. I just want my phone to be a phone (and I am one of those people who does not like to talk on the phone in the first place).

One Gadget, Multiple Uses

The idea of convergence in technology is an exciting one, I mean who wants to carry around a backpack full of different devices just so you can go online, track your appointments, listen to music, watch videos/TV, and make telephone calls? Pretty soon you have 20 pounds of gear and half-a-dozen chargers.

The idea behind the iPhone is an attractive one. There is one major drawback, however, with this kind of connectedness: it’s too much and too little at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to the day that we can get a small device that can handle all sorts of functions: combining the power and utility of a laptop with the portability of a Palm Pilot or BlackBerry, the “notebooks” one finds in William Gibson’s fiction. But I do not want it to be a phone.

Phone + ______ = “The Next Big Thing”

I personally find it difficult to understand the current fetish of combining one’s phone with other types of devices - the phone/music player, the phone/video player, the phone/organizer, the phone/camera. Can someone please take all of the other devices and combine them into one, 5″x7″x1″ unit with a screen and a little keyboard? This would be a useful device. Then we can do all of the things that we need to do while we are on-the-go and experience the productivity that this technology promises. Without being interrupted every few minutes by incoming calls.

The Wrong Direction

The Marketing Geniuses are taking the idea of the telephone down the wrong road, adding features that phones just do not need. I can just imagine a bunch of “creative types” sitting around a table brainstorming, “What if you had a phone that could also make cappuccino? That would be cool!”

No, it would not.

Here is an idea for the Geniuses to work on, what if you had a phone that was the size of a AA battery, with a clip and a retractable ear-bud? Make it voice-activated and solar-powered. Shock-proof. Water-proof.

Then give me more Services, rather than more Features. Like directions. Restaurant reviews. Weather forecasts. Movie times. Let me bookmark and tag these calls. Hook me in to a database of streaming-voice, or connect me to a live person (even if they are in India). Now that would be a phone. A phone that I can use while I play/work with my “convergence device”, instead of having to stop what I am doing for the call. That will be the iPhone killer.

Update: see a similar take at getFreshMinds

Update II: Web Worker Daily reviews a trio of devices that are getting close.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5vxkp3. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen