Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Replace an Office with a Cellphone

Cellphones continue to wow in terms of the ways in which they lighten our lives. They now pack as many features as used to fit into pounds of expensive electronic equipment. Our question for now is how many pieces of equipment they have replaced, as well as how many pieces of equipment that they will be able to replace in the future.

Let's start with how many pieces of equipment they have replaced so far:

  • the wristwatch
  • the landline
  • alarm clock
  • the internet terminal
  • the telephone handset
  • the pocket calculator
  • the address book
  • the pocket notepad
  • the pen
  • the notepad
  • the e-mail terminal
  • the mp3 player (which in turn replaced the walkman)
  • the USB stick (inasmuch as the flashcard memory allows)
  • the calendar
  • stopwatch
  • the camera
  • the camcorder

Meanwhile, I'm interested in what other things a cellphone could replace in the future, especially:

  • the fax machine?
  • the digital scanner?
  • the handheld radio?

It goes without mentioning that the mere fact of fitting all of the other above functions in one device is revolutionary, it's like fitting all of the functionality of a 1980s office (costing thousands of dollars) into one device!

Questions for discussion

  1. Can the cellphone already replace the fax machine?
  2. Can the cellphone already replace the digital scanner?
  3. What other devices can the cellphone as it now is replace?
  4. What other devices can we expect the cellphone to replace in the future?

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